12-18-14

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Almanac: Week: 51 \ Day: 352 
December Averages: 44°\17°
86004 Today: H 45°\L 30°
Ave. humidity: 78%     Average Sky Cover: 70%
Wind ave:   5mph\Gusts:  16mph
Ave. High: 43° Record High:  65° (1901)
Ave. Low: 16° Record Low:  -14° (1908)

Holiday Observances Today:
Republic Day (Niger-1958)
¤ ¤
Answer the Telephone Like Buddy The Elf Day
Arabic Language Day
Bake Cookies Day
Free Shipping Day
International Migrants Day
National Re-gifting Day
National Roast Suckling Pig Day

Observances This Week:
14-20
Gluten-free Baking Week
14-28
Halcyon Days
15-31
Christmas Bird Count Week 
16-24

Posadas
¤ 17-24
Chanukah
Saturnalia

• • • • • • •
Quote of the Day



Historical Highlights for Today
218 BC - Hannibal's Carthaginian forces defeat those of the Roman Republic
1271 - Kublai Khan renames his empire "Yuan" ( yuán), officially marking the start of the Yuan Dynasty of China
1719 - Thomas Fleet publishes "Mother Goose's Melodies For Children"
1777 - 1st national Thanksgiving Day, commemorating Burgoyne's surrender
• • • • • • •
  Birthdays Today:
How many can you identify? Answers below in Birthday’s Today


My Rambling Thoughts
The plan today was to stay at home, watch the 3-4” of snow fall, organize my Christmas gifts, and relax. Then I turned on the TV to hear Pres. Obama’s announcement regarding our new relations with Cuba. About 10 minutes later I started getting text messages from friends regarding the announcement. I posted some of my Cuba pictures on Facebook and got several responses. All in all, many of my friends figured that our trip to Cuba had some impact on the change in policy. I did send a letter to Obama, McCain, Flake, and Kirkpatrick upon my return. Basically stating that more Americans need to visit since the vast majority of America have no idea what Cuba is like. Most of us are stuck with the images of Ricky Ricardo and Lucy and ‘Babaloo’. I got the typical reply from all the officials, thanking me for my comments and stating that they would be filed.
Now, for the first time since I was in 6th grade, Cuba may become a trading partner. It is time, and actually it has been time for a couple of decades.
After I watched CNN, I turned to Fox to see what they were saying. No surprise, they were outraged. Lots of politicians did line up behind the Commander in Chief, but not on Fox with one major exception…AZ Senator Flake was interviewed and since he was on the plane that brought the citizens back, he was very pro-change in policy. His time on Fox was limited to his comment then they went to someone else. The talking heads even made some snarky comments about his comment. Anyway, overall it seems that the change is coming. So happy that I am one of the many Americans who traveled to Cuba, wrote to the government officials, and saw a change.
We didn’t get the promised snow, I did get the organizing of presents done and I did relax a little.
• • • • • • •
Brain Teasers
(answers at the end of post)
This morning I asked my math class to find the areas of two right-angled triangles. Lottie-Lu's hand shot up immediately, so I asked her the first one.
"24" she announced.
She was right (for a change!) and I made the mistake of asking her how she did it.
"Easy. Just add all the sides together."
I was about to correct her and say it was just a coincidence, when I noticed that her method worked on my second triangle as well!
Lottie-Lu must have caught my frustrated thoughts. "Well, it works, doesn't it?" she chirped.
What were the side lengths of the two triangles I had drawn on the board this morning? They were all whole numbers.   


Found on You Tube with some relevance to today



           
OK Then…


• • • • • • •
Paraphernalia 4 the Brain:     
December Holiday Facts
* Christmas Carol videos in Native Languages


*Christmas-Christian
¤ Christmas stockings allegedly evolved from three sisters who were too poor to afford a marriage dowry and were, therefore, doomed to a life of prostitution. They were saved, however, when the wealthy Bishop Saint Nicholas of Smyrna (the precursor to Santa Claus) crept down their chimney and generously filled their stockings with gold coins.
¤ There are two competing claims as to which president was the first to place a Christmas tree in the White House. Some scholars say President Franklin Pierce did in 1856; others say President Benjamin Harrison brought in the first tree in 1889. President Coolidge started the White House lighting ceremony in 1923.

*Hanukkah-Jewish
Traditional Hanukkah food is cooked during the festival. Oil is the key ingredient of the foods, which is a sign of tribute to the miracle of purified oil.

*Kwanza-African-American
The Celebration
Each day the family gathers to discuss the principle of the day. They can gather in their home, or several families may gather together in one home, or a large meeting hall. Traditionally the youngest person lights the candle. On the first day the black candle is lit, and the first principle is discussed (umoja). Everyone can talk about what it means to them, how they try to practice it, and how other people practice it and how it helps the entire community. Then there can be a discussion on how they can continue to practice it throughout the year, and activities based on the principle of the day. After the discussion is complete, the candle is put out. On the next day the black candle is lit again, and then a candle for the next principle, Kujichagulia. If you look back at the list of principles, you will see this one is written n red, so a red candle is lit. The next day the black candle, the red one and a green one are lit, and so on, until on the seventh day all seven candles are lit.

Flagstaff, AZ History…
FROM 1889
There have been a great many complaints of late of men getting drunk and openly going about on the main street using obscene language not fit to apply to a dog. It has become so bad that no lady dare walk on Railroad Avenue for fear of being insulted or hearing dirty or indecent epithets. There is a good law on this subject. It should be rigidly enforced.
           
Flagstaff’s Iconic 50…
Old Two-Spot historic locomotive
Though its wheels remain motionless, the rust never forms on Two Spot.
Two Spot is a Baldwin 2-8-0 locomotive that sits on a section of display track in downtown Flagstaff along Old Route 66 just east of the train depot. Born in 1911 as No. 25 in Pennsylvania, the steam locomotive got its nickname after the water bags that hung below its engineer windows steadily wore off paint, leaving a spot where the 5 was next to the 2.
The Arizona Lumber and Timber Company bought the locomotive in 1917, and it remained in Flagstaff its entire working life. It now stands as a memory of the timber workers and Flagstaff’s logging days. After having eight different owners, the engine was retired in 1966, resting on the property of Stone Forest Industry, the last lumber company to operate in Flagstaff. The company closed its doors in 1993, and the company began auctioning its equipment and materials.
In 1999, thanks to Flagstaff train enthusiast and historian and essayist Malcolm Mackey, Two Spot was placed downtown to remain intact for all travelers coming through town to view. But acquiring Two Spot was an arduous task, and Two Spot almost found itself sitting in Oregon, which didn’t put up the money in time. Mackey, who wrote a book detailing the efforts to keep the train in town, said he was one of a group who put up $10,000 to buy the engine for about $45,000.

Harper’s Index…
Amount by which spending on mobile ads is projected to exceed that on newspaper ads this year: $1,000,000,000       

Rules of Thumb…
BUYING BATTERIES
In most cases, a lithium battery will last as long as four alkaline batteries, and an alkaline battery will last as long as ten carbon-zinc batteries.  

Unusual Fact of the Day…
The state with the longest official name is also the smallest. The winner is the "State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations."
• • • • • • •
Joke-of-the-day
Just think, in a few million years Barney will be motor oil
           
Yep, It Really Happened
WASHINGTON (UPI)
Whether it be at the Christmas dinner table or on television, moms do not want their kids bickering. Pundits Dallas Woodhouse, a Republican, and his brother Brad Woodhouse, a Democrat, learned their lesson when their mother called into C-SPAN to chastise them for bickering. The two were discussing bipartisanship on Washington Journal with host Steve Scully when a call came in from "Joy" from North Carolina. The brothers greeted their fellow southerner until she started to speak, to which Dallas said, "Oh God, it's Mom." "You're right, I'm from down south," she said. "And I'm your MOTHER." "I disagree that many families are like ours," she continued. "I don't know many families that are fighting at Thanksgiving. I was very glad that this Thanksgiving was a year you were supposed to go to your in-laws. I'm hoping you'll have some of this out of your system when you come here for Christmas. I would really like a peaceful Christmas." While the pundits' mother was on the phone, Scully asked her what it was like raising her boys. "It hasn't been easy," she replied, adding that she loved them both. Mrs. Woodhouse is a registered Democrat, but admitted she has split her ticket.  

Somewhat Useless Information
¤ If a person who was born 8 lbs. and 20 in. at birth continued growing at the same rate as he does the first year, by the time he reached 20, he would be 25 ft. tall and weigh nearly 315 lbs.
¤ The grasp of a newborn baby is so strong that its whole body can hang in midair, with its bent fingers supporting its weight.      
• • • • • • •
Today’s Events through History
1956 - "To Tell the Truth" debuts on CBS-TV
1971 - 3 members of the Irish Republican Army die when bomb they were transporting explodes prematurely in County Derry
1976 - "Wonder Woman" debuts on ABC
• • • • • • •
Birthday’s Today
Roger Smith, actor (77 Sunset Strip) is 82
Roger E. Mosley, actor (TC-Magnum PI) is 76
Keith Richards, rock guitarist (Rolling Stones-Brown Sugar) is 71
Steven Spielberg, director (ET, Close Encounters, Jaws) is 68
Ray Liotta, actor (Goodfellas) is 60
Brad Pitt, actor (12 Monkeys) is 51
Kiefer Sutherland, actor (Young Guns) is 48
Katie Holmes, actress (Dawson's Creek, Batman Begins) is 36
Christina Aguilera, singer (Genie in a Bottle) is 34

Remembered for being born today
Charles Wesley, co-founder (Methodist movement) [1707-1788@80]
J. J. Thomson, physicist discovered electron (Nobel 1906) [1856-1940@83]
Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria, assassination led to WWI [1863-1914@50]
Saki, [Hector Hugo Munro], Burma, author [1870-1916@45]
Joseph Stalin [Josef], Premier of the Soviet Union [1878-1953@74)
Ty Cobb, baseball player, (Det Tigers) [1886-1961@74]
Willy Brandt, [Herbert Frahm], German chancellor (Nobel 1971) [1913-1992@78]
Betty Grable, great legs/actress (Gay Divorcee) [1916-1973@56]
Ossie Davis, actor/playwright (Hot Stuff, Man Called Adam) [1917-2005@87]
• • • • • • •
Historical Obits Today
John T "Legs" Diamond, US gangster, gang murdered, 1931, @35
Mark Goodson, TV game show producer (Goodson-Toddman), cancer, 1992, @77
Mother Clare Hale, cared for NYC AIDS babies (Hale House), 1992, @87
Chris Farley, comedian (SNL, Tommy Boy), OD, 1997, @33
Jack Linkletter, television host, son of Art Linkletter, lymphoma, 2007, @70
Bill Strauss, founder of the Capitol Steps, 2007, @60
Mark Felt, the infamous Deep Throat, 2008, @95
• • • • • • •

Brain Teasers Answers
1. 6-8-10 (Area = 6x8/2 = 24)
2. 5-12-13 (Area = 5x12/2 = 30)

• • • • • • •
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.