11-22-14

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Almanac: Week: 47 \ Day: 326 
November Averages: 51° \ 22°



Holiday Observances Today:
Independence Day (Lebanon-1943-from France)
¤¤
Family Volunteer Day
Go For a Ride Day
International Aura Awareness Day
National Adoption Day Humane Society Anniversary Day
National Survivors of Suicide Day 

Observances This Week:
National Hunger & Homeless Awareness Week; International Fraud Awareness Week: 15-23 
American Education Week; National Book Awards Week; National Global Entrepreneurship Week: 17-23   
National Farm-City Week: 21-27 

• • • •
Quote of the Day



Historical Highlights for Today
1842 - Mount St Helens in Washington erupts
1903 - Franklin Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt are engaged
1906 - International Radio Telecommunications Com adopts "SOS" as new call for help
1919 - Labor conference committee in US urges 8-hour work day & 48-hour week
1927 - 1st snowmobile patent granted to Carl Eliason (Sayner Wisc)
1927 - Neil Simon Theater (Alvin) opens at 250 W 52nd St NYC
1928 - "Bolero" by Maurice Ravel first performed publicly (Paris)
1930 - 1st Irish Sweepstake run
1934 - "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town" 1st heard on Eddie Cantor's show

1954 - Humane Society forms
1956 - 16th modern Olympic games opens in Melbourne
1957 - Simon & Garfunkel appear on "American Bandstand" as "Tom & Jerry"
1963 - President John F. Kennedy assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas, Texas
1963 - Lyndon B. Johnson sworn in as the 36th US president
1965 - "Man of La Mancha" opens at ANTA Wash Sq Theater NYC for 2329 perfs
1968 - 1st interracial TV kiss (Star Trek-Kirk & Uhura)
1968 - Terence O'Neill, then Northern Ireland Prime Minister, announced a package of reform measures granting concessions to the Catholic minority, in response to protest movement
1974 - UN General Assembly recognizes Palestine right to sovereignty
1976 - Comic strip "Cathy" by Cathy Guisewhite debuts
1977 – 1st three nodes of the ARPAnet are connected, eventually became the Internet
1984 - Fred Rogers of PBS "Mr Rogers Neighborhood" presents a sweater to Smithsonian Institution
1989 - Conjunction of Venus, Mars, Uranus, Neptune, Saturn & Moon
1995 - Toy Story is released as the first feature-length film created completely using computer-generated imagery
2005 - Angela Merkel becomes the first female Chancellor of Germany 
• • • •
  Birthdays Today:
How many can you identify? Answers below in Birthday’s Today



My Rambling Thoughts
A decent cool fall day. Still trying to get used to the much cooler temps.
I woke up this morning and was shocked, I say shocked, to find out that our country had NOT deteriorated into anarchy as was suggested by a right wind Senator yesterday. Obama made a passionate, sensible speech to help out millions of innocent children caught up in our broken immigration system. It didn’t solve the problem, but will give the do nothing Congress one more chance to fix the mess.
My medical appointment went well, but the Dr. was upset with me for not getting the Pneumonia shot when I got my flu shot. Turns out they now have two shots, one this year, one next year, then no more for a long time. I stopped at the pharmacy and got the first shot. Can’t get the next one until next year in November, but marked it on my calendar so I don’t forget. My next appointment will be a ‘wellness’ checkup as suggested and paid for by Medicare for us old-er folks. He says it’s a bunch of multiple choice questions, his nurse says it takes about 2 hours…can’t wait. My usual appointments take about an hour with the doctor, teaching me things to watch out for.
• • • •
Brain Teasers
(answers at the end of post)
What does this rebus represent?

shadddes

           
Found on You Tube with some relevance to today




OK Then…


• • • •
Paraphernalia 4 the Brain:     
**NEW**Actor Facts…
—Jim Carrey was offered the role of the 8th doctor in Doctor Who, but he declined.
—Yoda in Star Wars and Miss Piggy in The Muppets were voiced by the same person.

Flagstaff, AZ History…
25 YEARS AGO
—The current drought has brought new low levels in many lakes. At Lake Powell, where artificial habitats for fish have been in place for many years, they are now exposed, unsightly and a hazard to boaters.
—The U. S. Forest Service has made available for personal use only, 100 cords of green aspen firewood at $10 a cord in the Mormon Lake District. Cutting permit required.
           
Harper’s Index…
Number of film companies that have aksed the FAA for permits to use drones: 7
           
Internet Facts…
—The Gmail logo was designed the night before it was launched.
—Amazon sells more e-books than printed books.

That’s Outrageous from Reader’s Digest…
In Germany, until recently, one could deduct bribes. All that was required was the names of the briber and the bribed. Americans are a bit more creative when it comes to avoiding taxes:  A dog owner tried to deduct the cost of a dog walker by using a day care tax credit. An exotic dancer wrote off breast-enlargement surgery, saying it was a business expense. A Pittsburgh furniture-store owner paid an arsonist $10,000 to burn down his business so that he could collect the insurance money. He then tried to deduct the payment, calling it a consulting fee.

Pilgrim Fact…
Lemon Juice
Sickness was a constant threat to the Pilgrims. Scurvy, a nasty disease caused by a lack of vitamin C, was high on the list. Lemon juice was taken to help prevent scurvy. Talk about an immune boost.

Rules of Thumb…
CONSULTING
A consultant should charge at least three times the rate he or she would expect to receive for comparable full-time work with fringe benefits.
           
Unusual Fact of the Day…
—The Bill of Rights originally consisted of 12 amendments, but only ten were passed.
—The first one that didn’t pass the states was a formula for setting the number of Representatives. Had it passed we would now have about 6000 members of the House of Representatives.
—The second one that didn’t pass the states was stating that any pay increases to Congress would not take effect until there had been an election and then the new Congress would benefit. That amendment passed much later as the 27th Amendment.
• • • •
Joke-of-the-day
Two buddies are fishing, but they haven’t caught anything all day. Then, another fisherman walks by with a huge load of fish. They ask him "excuse me, but where did you get all those fish?"
The other fisherman replies,” If you just go down the stream until the water isn't salty, there are a ton of hungry fish."
They thank him and go on their way. 15 minutes later, one fisherman says to the other "fill the bucket up with water and see if the water is salty." 
He dips the bucket in the stream and drinks some. "Nope. Still salty." 30 minutes later, he asks him to check again. 
"Nope, still salty." One our later they check again. "Nope. Still salty."
"This isn't good," the fisherman finally says. "We have been walking for almost two hours and the water is still salty!"
"I know," says the other. "And the bucket is almost empty!"

           
Yep, It Really Happened
Deltona, FL
42-year-old Angela Stoldt of Deltona, Florida is accused of killing her neighbor, a limousine driver named James Sheaffer, last year. 
According to court documents, Sheaffer had come to Stoldt's house to discuss a delinquent loan he had taken from her father. The discussion apparently was not going well, so Stoldt served Sheaffer a cocktail of vodka and peach schnapps, laced with her father's prescription muscle relaxer.
It was after the drugs and alcohol made Sheaffer drowsy and confused that Stoldt took him to Osteen Cemetery. You have to think that she had something in mind by this point. 
At the cemetery the argument became violent. Sheaffer began swinging his arms and yelling, so Stoldt stabbed him in the eye with an ice pick. 
That didn't quite do the trick, so she strangled him with a cord. 
While brutal, this murder is no more unusual or inhuman than hundreds of other murders that occur all over the country every year, but what she did next is. 
It would seem like leaving the body in the cemetery would be a no-brainer, but Stoldt was more than a little obsessed with getting rid of the body. 
At first, she placed the body in a baby pool in her garage. The next day she took a hacksaw to her neighbor's body and tried to cook away evidence. One leg went in the oven. Other parts went into pots.
Stoldt's house smelled of burning flesh, but she assured her daughter it was just a rat broiling in the oven, which apparently is something people in Deltona do.
"Thursday is when I was cooking him," Stoldt told investigators. "Friday is when I was dumping him."
Three weeks after the death, Stoldt showed up suicidal at her parents' house confessing to the killing. It was Stoldt's sister who called authorities and led investigators to further question her.
She is being held without bail in Daytona Beach.
           

Somewhat Useless Information
Ten quotes by Emmanuel Kant! Emmanuel Kant was a German philosopher and a central figure for modern philosophy. Here are some of his most famous quotes:
—Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life.
—Experience without theory is blind, but theory without experience is mere intellectual play.
—Happiness is not an ideal of reason, but of imagination.
—Always recognize that human individuals are ends, and do not use them as means to your end.
—I had therefore to remove knowledge, in order to make room for belief.
—May you live your life as if the maxim of your actions were to become universal law.
—Religion is the recognition of all our duties as divine commands.
—From such crooked wood as that which man is made of, nothing straight can be fashioned.
—Nothing is divine but what is agreeable to reason.
—All thought must, directly or indirectly, by way of certain characters, relate ultimately to intuitions, and therefore, with us, to sensibility, because in no other way can an object be given to us.
           
Somewhat Useful Information from fivethrityeight.com
“The Rate of Domestic Violence Arrests Among NFL Players,”
1.      For most crimes, NFL players have extremely low arrest rates relative to national averages.
2.      Their relative arrest rate for domestic violence is much higher than for other crimes.
3.      Although the arrest rate for domestic violence may appear low relative to the national average for 25- to 29-year-old men, it is probably high relative to NFL players’ income level (more than $75,000 per year) and poverty rate (0 percent).
• • • •
Today’s Events through History
1752 - The "Mick Mack" of Nova Scotia sign a treaty with the British
1923 - Calvin Coolidge pardons WW I German spy Lothar Witzke, sentenced to death
1975Drummuckavall Ambush: 3 British Army soldiers are killed and one captured when the Provisional Irish Republican Army attack a watchtower in South Armagh, North Ireland
Birthday’s Today
Robert Vaughn, actor (Napolean Solo-Man from UNCLE, I Spy) is 82
Billie Jean King, tennis pro (Wimbledon 1968, 72, 73, 75) is 71
Steve Van Zandt, musician, actor is 64
Richard Kind, actor, comedian is 58
Jamie Lee Curtis, actress (Anything But Love, Halloween) is 56
Mariel Hemingway, actress (Personal Best, Civil Wars) is 53
Boris Becker, tennis player (Wimbledon 1985, 86, 89) is 47
Mark Ruffalo, actor, director is 47
Scarlett Johansson, actress (The Prestige) is 30

Remembered for being born today
Thomas Cook, founder (Cook travel bureau) (1808-1892)
Andre Gide, French writer (Lafcadio's Adventures-Nobel 1947) (1869-1951)
Charles de Gaulle, President of France, (1890-1970)
Wiley Post, aviator/parachutist (crashed in Alaska) (1898-1935)
Howard ‘Hoagy’ Carmichael, actor/songwriter (Stardust) (1899-1981)
Doris Duke, multi-millionaire (American Tobacco heiress) (1912-1993)
Rodney Dangerfield, [John Cohen], comedian (Caddyshack) (1921-2004)
Geraldine Page, Kirksville Mo (Interiors, Trip to Bountiful) (1924-1987)
• • • •
Historical Obits Today
Mae West, actress (She Done Him Wrong), 1980, @87
Mary Kay Ash, businesswoman, fMary Kay Cosmetics, 2001, @83
Scatman Crothers, actor (Shining, Zapped), pneumonia, 1986, @76
Molla Mallory, 8-time U.S. Open tennis champion, 1959, @75
C. S. Lewis [Clive Staples], Irish author (Silver Chair), renal failure, 1963, @64
Shemp Howard, actor (3 Stooges), heart attack, 1955, @60
Wilfred Bill Bixby, actor (My Favorite Martian), cancer, 1993, @59
Michael Conrad, actor (Hill Street Blues), cancer, 1983, @58
Arthur S Sullivan, England, composer (Mikado), heart failure, 1900, @58
Lorenz Hart, lyricist, pneumonia, 1943, @48
John F. Kennedy, 35th president, assassinated, 1963, @46
J. D. Tippit, Dallas Police Officer, shot, 1963, @39
Blackbeard (Edward Teach), notorious English pirate, in battle, 1718, @38
George Washington Gale Ferris, inventor (Ferris wheel), typhoid, 1896, @37
• • • •

Brain Teasers Answers
3D glasses
• • • •
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 contains mistakes and sadly once 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.