2-8-14

FYI: Any blue text is a link. Click to check it out!

Flagstaff Almanac:

Week: 06 / Day: 039   

Today: L 28°…H 34°… Ave. humidity: 79%

Wind: ave:   12mph; Gusts:  16mph  

Average Low: 18° Record Low:  -17° (1933)

Average High: 45° Record High:  65° (1996)

Quote of the Day

 

Today’s Historical Highlights

1690 - French & Indian troops set Schenectady settlement NY on fire

1693 - William & Mary college is chartered 

1735 - 1st opera in US "Flora," opens in Charleston, SC

1861 - Confederate States of America organizes in Montgomery, Ala

1887 - Under the Dawes Act Indians living apart from tribe granted citizenship

1905 - Cyclone hit Tahiti & adjacent islands, killing some 10,000 people

1910 - The Boy Scouts of America is incorporated by William D. Boyce.

1915 - "Birth of a Nation" opens at Clune's Auditorium in LA

1918 - "Stars & Stripes," weekly US armed forces newspaper, 1st published

1926 - Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio becomes Walt Disney Studios

1928 - Scottish inventor J Blaird demonstrates color-TV

1942 - Congress advises FDR that, Americans of Japanese descent should 

     be locked up en masse

1948 - 5th Winter Olympic games close at St Moritz, Switzerland

1952 - Elizabeth II is proclaimed Queen of the United Kingdom

1984 - 14th Winter Olympic games opens in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia

1992 - 16th Winter Olympic games opens in Albertville, France

2002 - XIX Winter Olympics opens in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States

♫  Today’s Birthdays: ♫   

How many can you identify? Answers in Today’s Birthdays

 

My Free Rambling Thoughts   

Only got about 2” of the white stuff, but remained cloudy most of the day…much of the snow has already melted away.

 

Excited to watch the Opening Ceremonies tonight. I refuse to watch the internet synopses of anything from the games…due to the time zone differences and the desire by NBC to have the biggest possible audience, everything seems to be rebroadcasts. That has some advantages as we see the ‘best’ of competitions; the downside is trying to avoid the latest updates on the internet machine.  I watched last night and enjoyed most of the program. Two weeks of great competition with the added bonus of Opening and Closing ceremonies…should be nice.

 

So I guess even high level diplomats use the ever famous F word when talking on the phone. It is interesting that the government phone call made the internet so quickly. Lots of finger pointing by our government…but if we are listening to others phone calls, how can we be so uninformed that other countries are not doing the same thing to us…I doubt that this is one of those ‘lesson learned’ events.

Game  Center (answers at the end of post)

Brain Teasers

For those of you who never played Might and Magic (a computer game), the Vowel-less Knights would always say something without vowels. It was up to you, the player, to figure out what they were saying. In their tradition, what are these famous quotes?

1) Spk sftl nd crr bg stck.2) gv hm th whl nn yrds!3) Nvr hv s fw gvn s mch fr s mn.

Lifestyle  Substance:     

Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

• "Going to the Dentist" by Comedian Robert Klein

• Del Shannon - Runaway (Original)

• Jack Lemmon winning an Oscar®

• Queen Elizabeth II Crowned

• Salt Lake City Flame Lighting

• The Fear In Jack Larson's Eyes

• The Millionaire TV Series Marvin Miller

Remembering TV’s great shows:

"The Dick Van Dyke Show" Primetime's first workplace-as-­family sitcom gracefully sidestepped clichés. If only Rob Petrie had the same kind of luck with ottomans.

Phrases Shakespeare invented:

foregone conclusion: Othello Act 3 Scene 3Othello: But this denoted a foregone conclusion.Iago: 'Tis a shrewd doubt, though it be but a dream, And this may help to thicken other proofs, That do demonstrate thinly.

OK Then…

 

Harper’s Index 

• Estimated percentage of the general US population that has attempted suicide at least once: 2.5

• Of the US transgender population: 41

Unusual Fact of the Day

In 1914, Henry Ford doubled the daily wage for his factory workers (from $2.40 to $5) while cutting their daily work hours from nine to eight.

Joke-of-the-day

Did you hear about the teacher who was helping one of her pupils put on his boots?

He asked for help and she could see why.   Even with her pulling, and him pushing, the little boots still didn't want to go on.

By the time they got the second boot on, she had worked up a sweat.

She almost cried when the little boy said, 'Teacher, they're on the wrong feet.'

She looked, and sure enough, they were.  Unfortunately, it wasn't any easier pulling the boots off, than it was putting them on.

She managed to keep her cool as, together, they worked to get the boots back on, this time on the correct feet.

He then announced, 'These aren't my boots.'

She bit her tongue, rather than get right in his face and scream, 'Why didn't you say so?' like she wanted to.  Once again, she struggled to help him pull the ill-fitting boots off his little feet.  No sooner had they got the boots off when he said, 'They're my brother's boots. But my Mom made me wear 'em today.'

Now she didn't know if she should laugh or cry.  But she mustered up what grace and courage she had left to wrestle the boots BACK onto his feet again.

Helping him into his coat, she asked, 'Now, where are your mittens?'

He said, 'I stuffed 'em in the toes of my boots.' 

She'll be eligible for parole in three years

Rules of Thumb:   

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess

CHOOSING A GENERATOR

The rule of thumb for operating an appliance with a power generator is to make sure the generator produces two and a half times the power consumption of the appliance.    

Yeah, It Really Happened

PITTSBURGH - A McDonald's restaurant worker in Pittsburgh has been accused of selling heroin in Happy Meal boxes, authorities said. Shantia Dennis, 26, was arrested Wednesday by an undercover officer who discovered the alleged scheme, CNN reported. Customers looking to buy heroin were told to go through the drive-through and say "I'd like to buy a toy," said a statement from Mike Manko, communications director for the Allegheny County District Attorney's Office. Buyers then pulled up to the first window, where they were handed a Happy Meal box containing heroin, the statement said. When the undercover officer carried out the drug buy, he recovered 10 stamp bags of heroin inside of a Happy Meal box, the statement said. Officers recovered 50 more bags of heroin, as well as some marijuana, from inside the restaurant, Manko said. Dennis was arrested at the scene and charged with two counts of possession, one count of criminal use of a communication facility, one count of prohibited acts of delivery and one count of possession with intent to deliver, CNN reported. Authorities said the heroin being sold at Dennis' McDonald's was not related to potentially lethal batches of heroin being sold in Western Pennsylvania.  

Somewhat Useless Information   

• The average groundhog is 20 inches long and normally weighs from 12 to 15 pounds. Punxsutawney Phil weighs about 20 pounds and is 22 inches long. 

• A groundhog's diet consists of lots of greens, fruits, and vegetables and very little water. Most of their liquids come from dewy leaves.

• A groundhog can whistle when it is alarmed. Groundhogs also whistle in the spring when they begin courting.

• A groundhog's life span is normally six to eight years. Phil receives a drink of a magical punch every summer during the Annual Groundhog Picnic, which gives him seven more years of life.

• In 2001, Phil's prediction was shown live on the JumboTron at Times Square in New York City. Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell attended the ceremonies, making him the first sitting governor ever to do so.

• Early observances of Phil's predictions were conducted privately in the wooded areas that neighbor the town. Today's celebration sees tens of thousands of visitors from all over the world.

Calendar Information        

Happening This Week:

☼2-8☼
Boy Scout Anniversary Week
Children's Authors & Illustrators Week
Dump Your Significant Jerk Week
International Coaching Week
Just Say No to PowerPoint Week
Publicity for Profit Week
☼7-14☼

Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Week 
Have A Heart for A Chained Dog Week  
Risk Awareness Week
Winter Olympics
Love Makes the World Go Round; But, Laughter Keeps Us From Getting Dizzy Week

Today Is                                                                      

·        Boy Scouts Day

·        Laugh and Get Rich Day

·        Opera Day

++++++

·        Extraterrestrial Culture Day (New Mexico)

·        Culture Day (Slovenia)

Today’s Events through History  

1672 - Isaac Newton reads 1st optics paper before Royal Society in London

1837 - 1st VP chosen by Senate, Richard Johnson (Van Buren admin)

1929 - KOY-AM in Phoenix Arizona begins radio transmissions

1960 - Congress opens hearings looking into payola

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

Jack Larson, actor (Jimmy Olsen-Superman) is 86

Nick Nolte, actor (The Thin Red Line, 48 Hrs) is 73

Robert Klein, stand-up comedian is 72

Mary Steenburgen, actress is 61

Seth Green, comedian is 40

Remembered for being born today

1828 - Jules Verne, France, pioneered sci-fi (From the Earth to the Moon)

1886 - Charlie Ruggles, actor (Ruggles, Aesop-Bullwinkle Show)

1920 - Lana Turner, actress (Survivors, Falcon Crest)

1922 - Audrey Meadows, actress (The Honeymooners, The Jackie Gleason Show)

1925 - Jack Lemmon, actor (Days of Wine & Roses, Missing)

1930 - Alejandro Rey, Buenos Aires, actor (Carlos-Flying Nun)

1931 - James Dean, stage/film actor (Giant, Rebel Without a Cause)

1968 - Gary Coleman, actor (Diff'rent Strokes)

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           

Max Liebermann, Ger impressionist painter/graphic artist, 1935, @87

Marvin Miller, actor (Michael Anthony-Millionaire), heart attack, 1985, @71

Del Shannon, rock vocalist (Runaway), suicide, 1990, @55

Peter the Great [Pyotr Alexeyevich Romanov], tsar of Russia, uremia,1725, @52

Anna Nicole Smith, Playboy playmate and tabloid fixture, drug intoxication, 2007, @39

Brain Teasers

1) Speak softly and carry a big stick. Bonus: Theodore Roosevelt.

2) I gave him the whole nine yards! Bonus: Fighter pilots would say this when they shot all 27 feet of ammunition at one target.

3) Never have so few given so much for so many. Bonus: Winston Churchill, praising the British fighter pilots who won the Battle of Britain.

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  §