12-10-14

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Almanac: Week: 50 \ Day: 344 
December Averages: 44°\17°
86004 Today: H 42°\L 28°  FOG
Ave. humidity: 90%     Average Sky Cover: 35%
Wind ave:   4mph\Gusts:  11mph
Ave. High: 44° Record High:  65° (1939)
Ave. Low: 17° Record Low:  -2° (1956)

Holiday Observances Today:
Admission Day (Mississippi-1817-20th)
Constitution Day (Thailand-1932)

¤ ¤
Dewey Decimal System Day
Human Rights Day
International Shareware Day
Jane Addams Day
National Day of the Horse
Nobel Prize Day
Observances This Week:
7-13
National Hand Washing Awareness Week
Recipe Greetings For The Holidays Week
Computer Science Education Week

10-17
Human Rights Week
• • • • • • •
Quote of the Day
 


Historical Highlights for Today
1520 - Martin Luther publicly burned papal edict demands he recant
1690 - Massachusetts Bay becomes 1st colonial government to borrow money
1745 - Bonnie Prince Charlie's army reaches Manchester
1799 - Metric system adopted in France, first country to do so
1864 - General Sherman's armies reach Savannah & 12 day siege begins
1869 - Women suffrage (right to vote) granted in Wyoming Territory (US 1st)
1901 – 1st Nobel Peace Prizes awarded (to Jean Henri Dunant, Frederic Passy)
1902 - Women are given the right to vote in Tasmania
1948 - UN General Assembly adopts Universal Declaration of Human Rights
1963 - 6-year old Donny Osmond's singing debut on Andy Williams Show
1984 - 1st "planet" outside our solar system discovered
1995 - Worst snowstorm in Buffalo history, 37.9" in 24 hours 
2013 - Uruguay becomes the 1st country to legalize growth, sale, use of marijuana
• • • • • • •
  Birthdays Today:
How many can you identify? Answers below in Birthday’s Today
 

My Rambling Thoughts
What a day. Did my weekly check of my bank accounts on-line. A couple of days ago I got a new card and registered it. Didn’t really understand because the current card was not expiring until 2017. When I got on line I found that my new card, a VISA had replaced my old card, a MasterCard. Called the help desk because my past statements on the MC were not available. Turns out, they magically moved the MC statements to the new cards VISA history. Now I have 2 VISA cards with the same bank and no MC. Hmmm. I’m sure it was a battle between the bank and the credit card company about fees. And I, the customer who pays bills by auto pay, had to call notify 4 auto pay accounts of the change. Sounds easy but took about 2 hours. I’m so tired of companies making changes without asking the customers and just being piss-y with the other company by dropping them. I have carried VISA and MC since I was in high school. Same thing that happened with my Cable company and Viacom. In that story they dropped Comedy Central and others and gave us 24/7 Glenn Beck and others.
Then I got ready to head out and found I had a weak battery, vehicle wouldn’t start. So much for buying cheap batteries. Still awaiting the dealership to call and say the vehicle is ready.
Good news too, the landscape company has been here all day. They cleaned out our gutters of pine needles, and blew away most of the pine needles in the rocks, then cleaned up the parking area of pine needles.  Nice, just in time as a snowstorm is a brewin’.
• • • • • • •
Brain Teasers
(answers at the end of post)
What phrase is represented below?

YOUR LIONS
Gulp UR LIONS
GulpGulp LIONS
GulpGulpGulp NS
GulpGulpGulpGulp

           
Found on You Tube with some relevance to today




           
OK Then…


• • • • • • •
Paraphernalia 4 the Brain:     
December Holiday Facts
*Christmas-Christian
¤ Alabama was the 1st state to officially recognize Christmas in 1836.
¤ Christmas wasn’t declared an official holiday in the US until June 26, 1870.
¤ Oklahoma was the last U.S. state to declare Christmas a legal holiday, in 1907.

*Hanukkah-Jewish
The Menorah
The lighting of the menorah, known in Hebrew as the hanukiya, is the most important Hanukkah tradition. A menorah is a candlestand with nine branches. Usually eight candles - one for each day of Hanukka - are of the same height, with a taller one in the middle, the shamash ("servant"), which is used to light the others. Each evening of Hanukkah, one more candle is lit, with a special blessing.
The menorah symbolizes the burning light in the temple, as well as marking the eight days of the Hanukkah festival. Some say it also celebrates the light of freedom won by the Maccabees for the Jewish people.

*Kwanza-African-American
Principles
Ujima (oo-JEE-mah) or cooperation and working together. Helping to build a community and solve problems together.

*12 Days of Christmas
Eight Maids A-milking
The eight Beatitudes: 1) Blessed are the poor in spirit, 2) those who mourn, 3) the meek, 4) those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, 5) the merciful, 6) the pure in heart, 7) the peacemakers, 8) those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake. (Matthew 5:3-10)

Flagstaff, AZ History…
50 YEARS AGO
A thick 10" blanket of blinding snow accompanied by gusty winds fell on Sunday. 18" fell on the lower slopes at the Snow Bowl while there is about 3 feet on the upper slopes. Even Sedona got 3" there was a hundreds of cars stand still on the Black Canyon Highway due to cars not having chains on. Then on Tuesday the temperature fell to a record low for the day of 10 degrees.
           
Flagstaff’s Iconic 50…
San Francisco Peaks Groundsel
The San Francisco Peaks themselves contain four of the six life zones. The four life zones which are found along the slopes of the San Francisco Peaks are listed below along with their approximate elevation ranges, dominant tree species found within each of the four life zones and average annual precipitation of each life zone:[9]
Ponderosa Pine forests — The elevation of this zone ranges from approximately 6,000 to 8,500 feet (1,800 to 2,600 m) above sea-level. The dominant tree species is the Southwestern Ponderosa Pine (Pinus brachyptera Engelm.). Gambel oak (Quercus gambelii) is a common associate of the ponderosa pine at lower elevations in the forest along with New Mexico locust (Robina neomexicana). At higher elevations, associates include southwestern white pine (Pinus strobiformis), Rocky Mountain Douglas-fir, (Pseudotsuga menziesii var. glauca), Rocky Mountain white fir (Abies concolor var. concolor), and Quaking Aspen (Populus tremuloides). The average annual amount of precipitation in this zone is 18 to 26 inches (460 to 660 mm).
Mixed conifer forest — The elevation of this zone ranges from approximately 8,000 to 9,500 feet (2,400 to 2,900 m) above sea-level. Species such as Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii var. glauca), White Fir (Abies concolor), Limber Pine (Pinus flexilis var. reflexa), Blue Spruce (Picea pungens), and less commonly Southwestern White Pine (Pinus flexilis) form mixed stands in this community, with Ponderosa Pine (Pinus brachyptera Engelm.) joining the mix on warmer slopes. The average annual amount of precipitation in the mixed conifer forest is 25 to 30 inches (640 to 760 mm).
Subalpine conifer forest — The elevation of this zone varies from approximately 9,500 to 11,500 feet (2,900 to 3,500 m) feet above sea-level. The dominant tree species of this zone are Englemann Spruce (Picea engelmannii subsp. engelmannii), Corkbark Fir (Abies lasiocarpa var. arizonica), Quaking Aspen (Populus tremuloides) and the Rocky Mountain Bristlecone Pine (Pinus aristata).[10] The average annual amount of precipitation in the subalpine forest is 30 to 40 inches (760 to 1,020 mm).
Alpine tundra — The San Francisco Peaks are the home of the only alpine tundra environment in Arizona, occupying 1,200 acres (4.9 km2) above 10,600 feet (3,200 m).[11][12] Only a few small herbaceous plants have established themselves in the tundra. One of these species, is the endemic and threatened San Francisco Peaks groundsel (Packera franciscana), which is found nowhere else in the world.[13][14][15] The average annual amount of precipitation in the tundra is 35 to 40 inches (890 to 1,020 mm).

Harper’s Index…
Cost to be buried beside your pet at the People and Pet Gardens in Hermitage, PA: $795         
Rules of Thumb…
LOOK FOR THE EXIT SIGN
When giving a speech in a public setting, speak directly to the red glowing exit sign. It's generally at the back of the auditorium/conference room. It's up high and easy to find. Plus you won't be distracted by looking in to the face of an audience member.
           
Unusual Fact of the Day…
Madonna's last name is Ciccone.
• • • • • • •
Joke-of-the-day
This guy needs a job and decides to apply at the zoo. As it happened, their star attraction, a gorilla, had passed away the night before and they had carefully preserved his hide. They tell this guy that they'll pay him well if he would dress up in the gorilla’s skin and pretend to be the gorilla so people will keep coming to the zoo. Well, the guy has his doubts, but Hey! He needs the money, so he puts on the skin and goes out into the cage. The people all cheer to see him. He plays up to the audience and they just eat it up. This isn't so bad, he thinks, and he starts really putting on a show, jumping around, beating his chest and roaring, swinging around. During one acrobatic attempt, though, he loses his balance and crashes through some safety netting, landing square in the middle of the lion cage! As he lies there stunned, the lion roars. He's terrified and starts screaming, "Help, Help, Help!" The lion races over to him, places his paws on his chest and hisses, "Shut up or we'll BOTH lose our jobs!"  

Yep, It Really Happened
MIAMI (UPI)
Federal prosecutors said a for-profit college in Florida hired "exotic dancers" to work as "admissions representatives" to attract young men to the school. The U.S. attorney's office and Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, who joined a whistle-blower lawsuit against Miami-based FastTrain College, said in a civil complaint at least one of the school's now-closed seven campuses used strippers as "admissions representatives." The college "purposely hired attractive women and sometimes exotic dancers and encouraged them to dress provocatively while they recruited young men in neighborhoods to attend FastTrain," the complaint states. The whistle-blower lawsuit was originally filed by Juan Pena, a former admissions employee at the Plantation campus and the Flagler campus. The school's campuses were shut down in 2012 following a raid by the FBI. Alejandro Amor, chief executive officer of the company, was indicted in October on criminal charges of conspiracy and theft of government money. Federal authorities said the school received more than $35 million in Pell grants and other federal financial aid between 2009 and 2012, and they allege the school obtained a large amount of grant money through fraudulent means including falsifying high school diplomas for ineligible students.       

Somewhat Useless Information
Cider's history is long, we're talking Colonial times -- the Founding Fathers are known to have enjoyed it regularly. President John Adams drank a tankard of cider every morning because he believed it promoted good health. 
Made from apples, water and little else, most ciders are naturally gluten free.
Ciders - unlike beers and wines - are governed by the Federal Drug Administration, which means they are required to list the ingredients on the bottle or can.
Prohibition and a deep frost in the 1930s nearly killed off the cider industry altogether. It has since been slowly rebuilding and experiencing a rebirth in popularity.
Most ciders are a blend of different apples that, together, give a desired balance (single-varietal ciders are also produced). To help facilitate the blending, cider apples are organized into four main categories: Sweets, Sharps, Bittersweets, and Bittersharps. 
You'll need lots of apples to make your own cider. It takes about 36 pieces of fruit to make one gallon.           

• • • • • • •
Today’s Events through History
1672 - NY Gov Lovelace announces monthly mail service between NY & Boston
1836 - Emory College (now Emory University) is chartered in Oxford, Georgia
1946 - German/Swiss novelist Hermann Hesse wins the Nobel Prize in Literature "for his inspired writings which, while growing in boldness and penetration, exemplify the classical humanitarian ideals and high qualities of style"
• • • • • • •
Birthday’s Today
Tommy Kirk, actor (Old Yeller) is 73
Susan Hallock Dey,  actress (Partridge Family, LA Law) is 62
Nia Peeples, [Vernia], dancer/host (Fame, Party Machine) is 53
Bobby Flay, American celebrity chef and restaurateur is 50
Raven-Symoné, actress and singer is 29

Remembered for being born today

Emily Dickinson, Amherst Mass, poet (Collected Poems), [1830-1886]
Melvil[le Louis K] Dewey, created Dewey Decimal System for libraries [1851-1931]
Chet Huntley, newscaster (NBC Huntley-Brinkley Report) [1911-1974]
Dorothy Lamour, [Mary Kaumeyer], actress\singer (Road to Bali) [1914-1996]
Harold Gould (Goldstein), actor (Martin-Rhoda) [1923-2010]
Dan Blocker, actor (Tiny-Cimarron City, Hoss-Bonanza) [1928-1972]
Ross Taylor [Robert Murray Taylor], Scottish transplant surgeon pioneered kidney transplantations [1932-2003]
Abu Abbas, founder of the Palestine Liberation Front [1948-2004]
• • • • • • •
Historical Obits Today
Red Cloud, Sioux chief, 1909, @87ish
Freeman "Amos" Gosden, US radio actor (Amos 'n' Andy), 1982, @83
Richard Pryor, comedian and actor, heart attack, 2005, @65
Faron Young, country singer/actor, suicide, 1996, @64
Alfred Nobel, Swedish Nobel Prize ceremony on this date, 1896, @63
Otis Redding, singer (Dock of Bay), plane crash1967, @26
• • • • • • •

Brain Teasers Answers
Swallow Your Pride
• • • • • • •
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.