2-12-14

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Flagstaff Almanac:

Week: 07 / Day: 043   

Today: L 31°…H 53°… Ave. humidity: 66%

Wind: ave:   8mph; Gusts:  18mph  

Average Low: 18° Record Low:  -16° (1965)

Average High: 45° Record High:  58° (2002)

Quote of the Day

 Today’s Historical Highlights

1541 - Santiago, Chile founded

1709 - Alexander Selkirk, Scottish seaman rescued after 4+ years-Fernandez Island (inspiration for Daniel Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe")

1733 - Georgia founded by James Oglethorpe, at site of Savannah

1832 - Ecuador annexes Galapagos Islands

1855 - Michigan State University was established.

1876 - Al Spalding opens his sporting good shop

1879 - 1st artificial ice rink in North America (Madison Sq Garden, NYC)

1914 - In Washington, DC, the first stone of the Lincoln Memorial is put into place.

1955 - Pres Eisenhower sends 1st US advisors to S Vietnam

1964 - Beatles 1st NYC concert (Carnegie Hall)

1994 - 17th Winter Olympic games opens in Lillehammer, Norway

1999 - President Bill Clinton is acquitted in his impeachment trial.

2002 - US Secretary of Energy decides Yucca Mountain is suitable to be the US nuclear waste repository.

2004 - San Francisco, California begins issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples

♫  Today’s Birthdays: ♫   

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

My Free Rambling Thoughts   

An interesting day with bureaucrats today. I got a bill from the anesthesia person for my second cataract surgery. As usual with medical bureaucracy getting answers to questions is virtually impossible. My first eye was $35 for anesthesia; the second eye was $65 after my insurance. The first eye was $490, the second eye was $630. The first eye was done by a local independent, while the second eye was done by a big group with billing offices in PA.  Eye Doctor’s office says that the use the only big company because the doc does many surgeries in a day and needs to have multiple anesthesia persons and only uses the local independent lady when no one is available from the big company. They have nothing to do with the billing by the anesthesia person. So I call the billing company and they say that they charge by the minute and that I was ‘under’ for 21 minutes on the second surgery. So I call the independent lady and she to bills by the minutes I was ‘under’ and that time I was ‘under’ for 28 minutes. I will be filing a complaint with my eye doctor the next time I go in. The lesson here is ‘buy local’. My local v WalMart comparison with the big company…that when you buy local you usually pay more, and when you buy from a big corporation you usually pay less…fell on deaf ears.

 

Foot is slowly getting better with the med for inflammation. Very little pain walking today. Sure just wish I knew what I did so I won’t do it again.

Game  Center (answers at the end of post)

Brain Teasers

You are touring an island, but it is not any old island. All the residents here are either a type T or L person.
Type T people ALWAYS tell the truth.
Type L people ALWAYS lie.
Now a person comes up to you and says, "I am a Type L person."
What type of person are they?

Lifestyle  Substance:     

Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

• LORNE GREENE - 'Ringo' - 1964 45rpm

• Sal Mineo Sings

• Oliver - Good Morning Starshine

• SIDNEY TOLER

• Memories Of You (Eubie Blake)

Remembering TV’s great shows:

"60 Minutes" The stopwatch continues to tick for the pioneering news program, which set the standard for compelling nonfiction storytelling.

Words Shakespeare invented

heart of goldHenry V; Act 4. Scene I
PISTOL  The king's a bawcock, and a heart of gold, A lad of life, an imp of fame; Of parents good, of fist most valiant. I kiss his dirty shoe, and from heart-string I love the lovely bully. What is thy name?

OK Then…

 

Harper’s Index 

Portion of the hundred tallest building currently under construction worldwide that are in China: 3/5

Unusual Fact of the Day

If the tracks on a typical compact discs ran in a straight line, they would travel about 3 miles  

Joke-of-the-day

One day while walking down the street a highly successful HR Director was tragically hit by a bus and she died. Her soul arrived up in heaven where she was met at the Pearly Gates by St. Peter himself.

"Welcome to Heaven," said St. Peter. "Before you get settled in though, it seems we have a problem. You see, strangely enough, we've never once had a Human Resources Director make it this far and we're not really sure what to do with you."

"No problem, just let me in," said the woman. "Well, I'd like to," replied St. Peter, "but I have higher orders. What we're going to do is let you have a day in Hell and a day in Heaven and then you can choose whichever one you want to spend an eternity in."

"Actually, I think I've made up my mind, I prefer to stay in Heaven," said the woman.

"Sorry, we have rules..." And with that St. Peter put the executive in an elevator and it went down-down-down to hell. The doors opened and she found herself stepping out onto the putting green of a beautiful golf course. In the distance was a country club and standing in front of her were all her friends - fellow executives that she had worked with and they were all dressed in evening gowns and cheering for her. They ran up and kissed her on both cheeks and they talked about old times. They played an excellent round of golf and at night went to the country club where she enjoyed an excellent steak and lobster dinner. She met the Devil who was actually a really nice guy (kinda cute) and she had a great time telling jokes and dancing. She was having such a good time that before she knew it, it was time to leave. Everybody shook her hand and waved good-bye as she got on the elevator. The elevator went

up-up-up and opened back up at the Pearly Gates and she found St. Peter waiting for her.

"Now it's time to spend a day in heaven," he said. So she spent the next 24 hours lounging around on clouds and playing the harp and singing. She had a great time and before she knew it her 24 hours were up and St. Peter came and got her. "So, you've spent a day in hell and you've spent a day in heaven. Now you must choose your eternity," he said. The woman paused for a second and then replied, "Well, I  never thought I'd say this, I mean, Heaven has been really great and all, but I think I had a better time in Hell." So St. Peter escorted her to the elevator and again she went down-down-down back to Hell.

When the doors of the elevator opened she found herself standing in a desolate wasteland covered in garbage and filth. She saw her friends were dressed in rags and were picking up the garbage and putting it in sacks. The Devil came up to her and put his arm around her.

"I don't understand," stammered the woman, "yesterday I was here and there was a golf course and a country club and we ate lobster and we danced and had a great time. Now all there is, is a wasteland of garbage and all my friends look miserable."

The Devil looked at her and smiled. "Yesterday we were recruiting you, today you're staff..."

Rules of Thumb:   

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess

RUNNING A DAIRY

The average useful life of a dairy cow is five to seven years.    

Yeah, It Really Happened

 A Florida resident said he thinks a monkey photographed in his neighborhood might have been behind a pair of car break-ins. The monkey in the Mirabay neighborhood of Apollo Beach was photographed recently by a neighborhood resident, and experts said it appears to be a rhesus macaque.

Corey Beckman, a photojournalist, said he spotted the monkey a couple weeks ago while relaxing at his home and soon came to suspect the primate of being behind two car break-ins the previous week.

Beckman said the cars were ransacked, but nothing was taken.

"You'd think anybody breaking into a car wound find it nice seeing a GPS there an iPod but they just left it all sitting here," Beckman said.

"Maybe it didn't like my music," Beckman joked.

The monkey hasn't caused any injuries and neighbors said they would like to see it relocated without being harmed.

• Somewhat Useless Information   

• The climate of the Sahara has undergone enormous variations and it was not always the hottest desert in the world, actually it was not even a desert! The Sahara used to be green and wet around 9,000 years ago and will possiby be again after 15, 000 years. The Neolithic Subpluvial was the most recent of a number of periods of “Wet Sahara” or “Green Sahara”, during which the region was much more moist and supported a richer biota and human population than the present-day desert.

• ‘Tootsie pops’ are hard candy lollipops filled with chocolate-flavored chewy Tootsie Roll and were invented in 1930 by Lukas R. “Luke” Weisgram. The company changed its name to Tootsie Roll Industries in 1969 and it is said that in 2002, sixty million Tootsie Rolls and twenty million Tootsie Pops were produced every day. According to several tests it became known that it takes 142,18 licks for someone to reach the center of a tootsie pop!

• Big Ben, whose chimes are one of the best -known sounds in London, is the huge clock situated in the Houses of Parliament in London and it first rang in 1858. This bell, whose diameter is 2,7 meters, weighs 13 tons. It is the largest bell that has ever been made in England. There are several explanations about the name of Big Ben. The most popular is that the bell was named after Sir Benjamin Hall, who was a tall, rather fat member of the Parliament.

Calendar Information        

Happening This 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
☼9-15☼

Celebration of Love Week
Children of Alcoholics Week
Jell-O Week
Freelance Writers Appreciation Week
Random Acts of Kindness Week 
International Flirting Week
Love a Mench Week
National Green Week

Today Is                                                                       

·        Darwin Day

·        Lincoln's Birthday

·        NAACP Day founded in 1909

·        Oglethorpe Day

·        Paul Bunyan Day

·        Safety Pup Day

Today’s Events through History  

1502 - Vasco da Gama sets sail from Lisbon, Portugal on his second voyage to India.

1908 - NY to Paris auto race (via Alaska & Siberia) begins in NYC 

1931 - Vatican Radio begins broadcasting with the call sign HVJ

1950 - Albert Einstein warns against hydrogen bomb

1987 - Survivors of a black man murdered by KKK members awarded $7 M damages

2007 - A gunman opens fire in a mall in Salt Lake City, killing 5 people in the Trolley Square shooting.

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

Joe Garagiola, sportscaster/host (Today Show) is 88

Charles Van Doren, American quiz show contestant is 88

Bill Russell, Monroe La, NBAer (Boston Celtics, Oly-gold-56) is 80

Joe Don Baker, actor (Eischied, Walking Tall) is 78

Maud Adams, Sweedish actress (Octopussy, Rollerball, Tattoo) is 69

Joanna Kerns, [de Varona], actress (Maggie-Growing Pains) is 61

Arsenio Hall, comedian (Alan Thicke, Arsenio, Coming to America) is 58

Chynna Phillips, vocalist (Wilson Philips-Hold On) is 46

Josh Brolin, actor (Johnny-Private Eye, Jimmy Hickok-Young Riders) is 46

Christina Ricci, actress (Wednesday-Addams Family, Mermaids, Casper) is 34

Remembered for being born today

1663 - Cotton Mather, witchcraft authority

1809 - Abraham Lincoln, Kentucky, (R) 16th US President (1861-65)

1809 - Charles Darwin, England, discovered evolution (Origin of the Species)

1893 - Omar Bradley, General of Army WW II (GI General)

1904 - Ted Mack, Denver Colorado, TV host (Original Amateur Hour)

1915 - Lorne Greene, Ottawa Canada, actor (Bonanza, Battlestar Galactica)

1919 - Forrest Tucker, actor (O'Rourke-F Troop, Dusty Trail)

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           

Eubie Blake, ragtime-composer/pianist (Memories of You), 1983, @96

Charles M. Schulz, American cartoonist, cancer, 2000, @77

Tom Landry, American football coach, leukemia, 2000, @75

Sidney Toler, actor (Charlie Chan, Dark Alibi), cancer, 1947, @72

Oliver, American pop singer, cancer, 2000, @54

Ethan Allen, American patriot, stroke, 1789, @51

Grant Wood, US painter (American Gothic), cancer, 1942, @50

Sal Mineo, actor (Exodus, Rebel Without a Cause), stabbed, 1976, @37

Jane Grey, queen of England for 9 days, beheaded, 1554, @17

Brain Teasers

A tourist.

A type T could not say that, because he would be lying. A type L couldn't say it, because he would be telling the truth. So the person couldn't be either. Also, since you are touring the island, there are probably others too. And a tourist could either lie or tell the truth. In this case, he would be lying.

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  §