12-23-14

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Almanac: Week: 52 \ Day:  357
December Averages: 44°\17°
86004 Today: H 52°\L 31°
Ave. humidity: 65%     Average Sky Cover: 8%
Wind ave:   14mph\Gusts:  29mph
Ave. High: 43° Record High:  63° (1901)
Ave. Low: 16° Record Low:  -23° (1990)

Holiday Observances Today:
Feast of the Radishes (Mexico)
Rabi'I (birthday month of Mohammad)
¤ ¤
Festivus
Human Light Celebration
Roots Day
Observances This 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
1672 - Giovanni Cassini discovers Rhea, a satellite of Saturn
1688 -  King James II, the last Roman Catholic British monarch flees to France-from William of Orange
1751 - France sets plan to tax clergymen
1776 - Thomas Paine writes "These are the times that try men's souls"
1779 - Benedict Arnold court-martialed for improper conduct
1793 - Thomas Jefferson warned of slave revolts in West Indies
1804 - MANDANs offer Lewis and Clark food as trade
1823 - "Visit from St Nicholas" by C Moore published in Troy (NY) Sentinel
1888 - Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh cuts off his left ear
1672 - Giovanni Cassini discovers Rhea, a satellite of Saturn
1688 -  King James II, the last Roman Catholic British monarch flees to France-from William of Orange
1751 - France sets plan to tax clergymen
1776 - Thomas Paine writes "These are the times that try men's souls"
1779 - Benedict Arnold court-martialed for improper conduct
1793 - Thomas Jefferson warned of slave revolts in West Indies
1804 - MANDANs offer Lewis and Clark food as trade
1823 - "Visit from St Nicholas" by C Moore published in Troy (NY) Sentinel
1888 - Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh cuts off his left ear
1913 - President Woodrow Wilson signs Federal Reserve Act into law
1919 - Alice H Parker patents gas heating furnace
1921 - Gangster Carlo Gambino enters the United States as an illegal immigrant on the SS Vincenzo Florio
1941 - American forces on Wake Island surrender to Japanese
1947 - Transistor invented by Bardeen, Brattain & Shockley in Bell Labs
1962 - Cuba starts returning US prisoners from Bay of Pigs invasion-1,113 prisoners for $62M worth of food & medical supplies
1968 - 82 members of US intelligence ship Pueblo released by North Korea
1971 - British Prime Minister Edward Heath visits Northern Ireland and expresses his determination to end the violence
• • • • • • •
  Birthdays Today:
How many can you identify? Answers below in Birthday’s Today


My Rambling Thoughts
Packing complete…finally. Ready for my 6a pickup for the shuttle. Got several texts from my brother and all is well for my visit. Good friends, good weather, and for the first time in forever, know need for gloves or a heavy winter coat.  NICE!
This will be the last blog until I return. Happy Holidays to All.
• • • • • • •
Brain Teasers
(answers at the end of post)
What is this saying
OUTER SPACE



3.14159



GROUND

           
Found on You Tube with some relevance to today


           
OK Then…


• • • • • • •
Paraphernalia 4 the Brain:     
December Holiday Facts
* Christmas Story by Natives

*Christmas-Christian
¤ The earliest known Christmas tree decorations were apples. At Christmastime, medieval actors would use apples to decorate paradise trees (usually fir trees) during “Paradise Plays,” which were plays depicting Adam and Eve’s creation and fall.
¤ Commissioned by Sir Henry Cole (1808-1883), British illustrator John Callcott Horsley (1817-1903) invented the first Christmas card in 1843.
¤ According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), there are 2,106 million children under age 18 in the world. If there are on average 2.5 children per household, Santa would have to make 842 million stops on Christmas Eve, traveling 221 million miles. To reach all 842 million stops, Santa would need to travel between houses in 2/10,000 second, which means he would need to accelerate 12.19 million miles (20.5 billion meters) per second on each stop. The force of this acceleration would reduce Santa to “chunky salsa.”
¤ Christmas purchases account for 1/6 of all retail sales in the U.S.

Flagstaff, AZ History…
75 YEARS AGO
Warner Bros. 3-week stay filming in our area wrapped up with a fatal collision when a truck carrying four men and nine horses was struck by an eastbound Santa Fe extra freight at the stockyards crossing about a mile south of here. Eight horse died and two of the men also died later in the Flagstaff Hospital. Saddened by their loss, most of the movie people left by special coach Wednesday night for their studio in Burbank. A second coach will take the rest of the crew on Sunday.
           
Flagstaff’s Iconic 50…
Route 66
An old railroad and lumber-mill town given a new lease on life by an influx of students at Northern Arizona University, and by the usual array of ski bums and mountain bikers attracted by the surrounding high mountain wilderness, Flagstaff (pop. 52,894) is an enjoyable, energetic town high up on the Coconino Plateau. The natural beauty of its forested location has meant that, compared to other Route 66 towns, Flagstaff was less affected by the demise of the old road. That said, it still takes pride in the past, notably in the form of the Museum Club, at 3404 E. Route 66, an old roadhouse brought back to life as a country-western nightclub and ad-hoc nostalgia museum. There are also dozens of vintage neon signs along the old Route 66 alignment: Check out the Western Hills Motel and the Grand Canyon Cafe downtown, and the Flamingo Motel five blocks west. (The Flamingo has been known as the Flaming Motel since the “o” burned out on the sign.)

Harper’s Index…
Percentage of Newark, NJ residents who are belack: 54
Of pedestrians stopped by Newark police who are: 81
Portion of Newark police stops that are ‘legally unjustified’ according to the DOJ: 3/4 
Rules of Thumb…
GENERATING PUBLICITY
One personal call to a newspaper reporter is worth 20 news releases to newspapers.   

Unusual Fact of the Day…
Dr. Ruth was trained as a sniper by the Israeli military.
• • • • • • •
Joke-of-the-day
A businessman dragged himself home and barely made it to his chair before he dropped exhausted.
His sympathetic wife was right there with a tall cool drink and a comforting word. "My, you look tired," she said. "You must have had a hard day today. What happened to make you so exhausted?"

"It was terrible," her husband said. "The computer broke down and all of us had to do our own thinking."     

Yep, It Really Happened
The bizarre News story of the week, of course, is the cancellation of the release of some stupid Seth Rogen and James Franco movie called 'The Interview' after an anonymous group of hackers (North Korea) broke into Sony Pictures and started threatening terrorist attacks against cinemas that played it. 
A much less widely read, but more amusing story comes from Canada where a young man went to the Internet to find a travel partner for a trip he is planning. 
That isn't all that bizarre, but the fact that he was looking for a travel partner named Elizabeth Gallagher is. 
Last year 27-year-old Toronto resident Jordan Axani had planned a once-in-a-lifetime, round-the-world trip with his then girlfriend Elizabeth Gallagher. As sometimes happens with boyfriends and girlfriends, they broke up. 
So there he was, with thousands of dollars in tickets and reservations for a woman named Elizabeth Gallagher, but no Elizabeth Gallagher. So he went to the Internet. 
And incredibly, he found her! A 23-year-old student named Elizabeth Quinn Gallagher agreed and is set to jet off with Axani around the world. However, the trip will be strictly platonic since she already has a boyfriend. 
           

Somewhat Useless Information
¤ The first decorated Christmas tree was in Riga, Latvia in 1510. The first printed reference to Christmas trees appeared in Germany in 1531.
¤ Thomas Edison's assistant, Edward Johnson, came up with the idea of electric lights for Christmas trees in 1882. Christmas tree lights were first mass-produced in 1890.
¤ The official Christmas tree tradition at Rockefeller Center began in 1933. Since 2004 the tree has been topped with a 550-pound Swarovski Crystal star. And since 2007, the tree has been lit with 30,000 energy-efficient LED's which are powered by solar panels.
¤ Live Christmas trees have been sold commercially in the United States since about 1850. The first Christmas tree retail lot in the United States was started by Mark Carr in New York, in 1851.
¤ Artificial Christmas trees were developed in Germany during the 19th century and later became popular in the United States. These trees were made using goose feathers that were dyed green and attached to wire branches. The wire branches were then wrapped around a central dowel rod that acted as the trunk.
¤ In the United States, there are more than 15,000 Christmas tree farms. There are approximately 350 million Christmas trees growing on U.S. farms. Approximately 100,000 people are employed full or part-time in the Christmas tree industry.

¤ While the entire area between the jawline and shoulders is an erogenous zone, the small indention where the neck connects with the collarbone is particularly sensitive for foreplay.
¤ Physicians note that touching the side of the torso from the bottom of the rib cage to the hips stimulates a powerful nerve that reflexively causes the pelvic floor muscles to contract in both men and women which, in turn, helps increase arousal.

¤ Food can act as foreplay. While there aren't double-blind studies proving aphrodisiac properties exist in food, sexologists suggest feeding your partner traditional aphrodisiacs such as chocolate, chili peppers, asparagus, avocados, and oysters.
¤ Roman baths were the focus of social get-togethers and catered to almost every activity, including swimming, exercise, philosophy, beauty treatments, and sex. Intercourse was common, but often attending the baths was a type of foreplay--a type of "naked leisure centers."

• • • • • • •
Today’s Events through History
1690 - English astronomer John Flamsteed observes Uranus not realizing its undiscovered
1943 - 1st telecast of a complete opera (Hansel & Gretel), Schenectady, NY
1987 - Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme escapes from Alderson Prison
• • • • • • •
Birthday’s Today
Bob Barker, TV host (Price is Right) is 92
Wesley Clark, American military officer is 70
Susan Lucci, actress (All My Children) is 68

Remembered for being born today
Joseph Smith Jr, founder (Mormon Church), [1805-1844-@38]
Harriet Monroe, poet/editor of Poetry magazine (You & I) [1860-1936-@75]
Sarah Breedlove, (Madam C. J. Walker), daughter of slaves & 1st US female self-made millionaire (hair straightner) [1867-1919-@51]
James Gregory, actor (My Favorite Martian, Barney Miller) [1911-2002-
@90]
Corey Haim, Toronto, actor (Silver Bullet) [1971-2010-@38]
• • • • • • •
Historical Obits Today
Charlie Ruggles, actor (Ruggles, Aesop-Bullwinkle Show), 1970, @84
Oscar Peterson, Canadian jazz pianist and composer, 2007, @82
Charles Atlas, [Angelo Siciliano], body builder, heart attack, 1972, @79
John Cotton, Mass Bay Puritan preacher, 1652, @67
Jack Webb, actor (Joe Friday-Dragnet), heart attack, 1982, @62
• • • • • • •

Brain Teasers Answers
Pie in the sky!
The pi(e) is where the sky should be.

• • • • • • •
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.