FYI:
Any blue text is a link. Click to check it out!
Almanac: Week: 47 \ Day: 324
November
Averages: 51° \ 22°
Holiday Observances
Today:
Revolution Day (Mexico-1910)
+++
Absurdity Day
African
Industrialization Day
Great American Smokeout Day
Beautiful Day
Globally
Organized Hug A Runner Day aka G.O.H.A.R.D
Name Your
PC Day
National
Peanut Butter Fudge Day
Transgender
Day of Remembrance
Universal Children's Day
Use Less
Stuff Day
World Day of Remembrance For Road Traffic Victims
Observances This
Week:
• • • •
Quote of
the Day
Historical
Highlights for Today
1521 - Arabs attribute shortage of water in Jerusalem to Jews
making wine
1817 - First Seminole War begins in Florida
1866 - First national convention of Grand Army of Republic
(veterans' org)
1866 - Howard University founded (Washington DC)
1914 - US State Department starts requiring photographs for
passports
1919 - 1st municipally owned airport in US opens (Tucson Az)
1920 - Nobel Peace Prize awarded to US president W Wilson
1929 - Salvador Dali's
first one-man show
1938 - 1st documented anti-semitic remarks over US radio (by
Father Coughlin)
1945 - 24 Nazi leaders put on trial at Nuremberg, Germany
1947 - "Meet the Press" makes network TV debut on NBC
1949 - Jewish population of Israel reaches 1,000,000
1959 - UN adopts Universal Declaration of Children's Rights
1962 - USSR agrees to remove bombers from Cuba, & US lifts
blockade
1969 - Alcatraz Island off SF, is seized by militant Native
Americans
1982 - Drew Barrymore at age 7 hosts Saturday Night Live
1985 - Microsoft Windows 1.0 is released
1995 - FDA approves new therapy for use as an initial AIDS
treatment, 3TC
1998 - The first module of the International Space Station, Zarya,
is launched
• • • •
♫
Birthdays Today: ♫
How many can you identify? Answers below in Birthday’s Today
My
Rambling Thoughts
Guess it’s time to get used to very chilly mornings. We had such a
warm fall, this is not easy. Thankfully it does warm up as the day goes on.
I wish the media would take a ‘wait and see’ attitude on so many
of its stories. Tired to the ‘breaking news’ that tells me that ‘…someday soon,
Pres. Obama will make his announcement on immigration reform.’ Then a bunch of
talking heads guess what he will say…someday soon. To make it more interesting
for these talking heads, then they talk to various people, some informed, some,
not so much about what will happen if scenario A is correct. Then more if scenario
B is correct. Being retired I have time, if I so desire, to listen to the whole
story. I remember when I was working, I didn’t have that time. My issue is that
much of America only hears some of the story and believe that they have heard
the story. “If President Obama uses his Executive power on immigration, Republicans
will call for impeachment…” is heard. What is not heard is “Republicans will
call for impeachment when there is a well-founded legal issue he has broken.
Such an issue will be difficult, if not impossible, to find.” The masses don’t hear the last part because the
station has broken for a commercial right after the word ‘impeachment’ and it
takes 2-3 minutes to get back to the story.
I don’t listen to a lot of Foo Fighter’s music. It is OK, but for
me, only in small doses. Then I discovered the HBO series, where this band is
traveling to various US music cites, talking to the music community—past and
present—and then recording a song in that genre in on the city’s famous venues…be
it a small bar, a recording studio, or a larger venue. I’ve seen about 5 of the
series and don’t want to miss any of it. If you have HBO, it is certainly worth
a view—Foo Fighters: Sonic Highways on
Sunday night with many replays during the week.
Sure glad I'm living in Buffalo, NY. A few years back we had about 3+ feet of snow in 48 hours and it was awful. Can't image twice that much so fast.
• • • •
Brain
Teasers
(answers at the end of post)
Change
the position of just one of the words below so that all the words are in an
alphabetical sequence:
llama, phoenix, hyena, alligator, beaver, elephant, tortoise, antelope
What
is interesting about this new order?
Found on
You Tube with some relevance to today
OK Then…
• • • •
Paraphernalia
4 the Brain:
England
Facts…
—In
Scotland it is illegal to be a drunk in possession of a cow.
—The 409
escalators in the London subway cover a distance every week which is
approximately equivalent to several trips around the globe!
Flagstaff,
AZ History…
50 YEARS
AGO
—Fort
Valley Service Station is open. Come “Put a tiger in your tank.” The Humble Oil
Co is offering free gifts with a 10 gallon or more fill up. Get a 5-pound bag
of sugar, balloon key chains and ladies purs-paks.
—The City
Council voted unanimously to maintain the fire department policy in “excluded
areas” within the city as in the past and to send assistance to fires outside
the city for all at cost.
—The city
has purchased 5 new police car specials and 2 Falcons for city use, as well 3
each: merry go rounds, slides, swings and combination slides to be installed at
Greenlaw, Sunset and Elden/Butler parks.
Hair
Facts…
—In
ancient Egypt, priests plucked EVERY hair from their bodies, including their
eyebrows and eyelashes.
—One human
hair can support 3 ounces.
Harper’s
Index…
—Chance that
a poor women in a predominantly white Milwaukee neighborhood will be evicted
this year: 1 in 150
—That a
poor woman in a predominantly black Milwaukee neighborhood will be: 1 in 17
Internet
Facts…
—In 1999,
Pokémon was the second most searched topic on the internet. The first was
pornography.
—Anthony
Greco, aged 18, became the first person arrested for spim (unsolicited instant
messages) on February 21,2005.
That’s
Outrageous from Reader’s Digest…
A bus full of ten-year-olds is evacuated in Massachusetts. Is
there a terrorist on board? A fire? A wolf? Try: a peanut. It seems to be a
single legume, unarmed, on the floor, but you can’t be too careful, can you?
What if there’s a child on the bus who’s allergic? What if he hurls himself
toward the nut and eats it quicker than an elephant coming off a juice fast?
There’s only one way to make absolutely sure that tragedy never happens
(besides the driver picking up the nut and throwing it away): mass
evacuation.
Pilgrim
Fact…
Drinks
The Pilgrims may have originally been Puritans, but they weren't
puritanical when it came to alcohol. Their primary beverage was beer, even for
the kids. The Pilgrims believed that water was contaminated and often made
people sick, which was probably true in a time before reliable water filtration
or purification. Beer’s distillation process killed most parasites and
bacteria, making the brew safer to sip.
Rules of
Thumb…
FINDING
TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS
Cheap paperback
novels average one typographical error for every ten pages.
Unusual
Fact of the Day…
A
shampoo containing real beer was marketed in the 1970s under the brand name
Body On Tap.
• • • •
Joke-of-the-day
An Antartian died and went to heaven. When he
got to the pearly gate Saint Peter told him that new rules were in effect due
to the advances in education on earth. In order to gain admittance a
prospective heavenly soul must answer three questions:
1. Name two days of the week that begin with "T".
2. How many seconds are in a year?
3. What is God's first name?
The Antartian thought for a few minutes and answered...
1. The two days of the week that begin with "T" are Today and
Tomorrow.
2. There are 12 seconds in a year.
3. God has two first names, and they are Andy and Howard."
Saint Peter said, "OK, I'll buy the Today and Tomorrow, even though it's
not the answer I expected, so your answer is correct.
But how did you get 12 seconds in a year, and why did you ever think that God's
first name was either Andy or Howard?"
The Antartian replied, "Well, January 2nd, February 2nd,March 2nd,
etc...."
"OK, I give," said Saint Peter, "but what about the God's first
name stuff?"
The Antartian said, "Well, from the song....Andy walks with me, Andy talks
with me, Andy tells me I am his own..., and the prayer...Our Father, who art in
heaven, Howard be thy name...."
Saint Peter let him in without another word.
Yep, It
Really Happened
ALBUQUERQUE (UPI) - Police in New Mexico said a woman accused of
possessing a stolen truck attempted to escape custody through the ceiling of a
hospital room. New Mexico State Police said Shylen Salazer, 34, was arrested
alongside a male suspect Tuesday when they were found near a stolen vehicle and
while in holding Salazer told officers she had swallowed drugs and needed
medical attention. Salazer, who was found to be concealing a pipe in her bra,
was taken to Presbyterian Hospital, where she was found to be missing later in
the evening. Police searched the hospital for about an hour before discovering
Salazer was hiding in the ceiling of her hospital room. Salazer, who police
said admitted to possessing the stolen truck for nearly two months, was charged
with escape and receiving or transferring a stolen vehicle.
Somewhat
Useless Information
How
many Oscars did Tom and Jerry win?
Tom
and Jerry is an American animated comedy series created in 1940 by William
Hanna and Joseph Barbera.
The
two main characters are Tom Cat and Jerry Mouse, as well as many recurring
characters, and the plot has to do with the
fights between them. Actually,
Tom conducts numerous attempts to capture Jerry.
Tom
and Jerry cartoons won seven Oscars, and were nominated for six more! The first
one was back in 1943.
+++
There’s
a store that sells only purple products
Have
you ever wondered if there’s a store in the world selling only products of your
favorite color?
In
Seattle, there is a store called ‘The Purple Store’ that only sells purple
products!
Adam
Sheridan, owner of The Purple Store, said: “People who like purple really like
purple and in a perfect world, something fun like The Purple Store should
exist. We have found that you have an enthusiastic fan who might see a little
bit of purple in a department store, but when they come here, their eyes light
up and their jaws drop.”
Somewhat Useful
Information from fivethrityeight.com
Drivers and Accidents
—There were 5.6
million motor vehicle crashes in the United States in 2012, of which 4 million
involved solely property damage, 1.6 million involved a personal injury, and
30,800 resulted in a fatality, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration (NHTSA)
—Texas accounted for
3,021 of those fatal crashes, more than any other state, while Washington,
D.C., had 14, fewer than anywhere else.
—North Dakota has the
highest number of such drivers for every billion miles traveled. Over the
course of the 9.1 billion miles traveled in the state in 2011 (the
latest data available), 218 drivers were involved in 147 crashes.
—Of the 45,670 drivers
involved in fatal road accidents nationwide in 2012, 3,758 were recorded as
being distracted at the time (although it’s worth bearing in mind that in 8,991
cases, it was either not known or not recorded whether the driver was
distracted).
—397 of those drivers
were distracted by their cellphones, 39 were eating or drinking, and 17 drivers
were simply “lost in thought/day dreaming.”
—NHTSA recorded 33,808
total traffic fatalities, 31 percent of which occurred while a driver was
speeding.
—Thirty-one percent of
all traffic fatalities in 2012 occurred while a driver was alcohol-impaired.
•
• • •
• • • •
Today’s
Events through History
1431 - First meeting of Order of the Golden Fleece
1965 - UN Security council calls for boycott of Rhodesia
1969 - Pele scores his 1,000th soccer goal
2012 - Toshiba unveils a robot designed to help in
nuclear disasters
Birthday’s
Today
Kaye Ballard, actress/comedienne
(Kaye-Mothers-in-Law) is 89
Estelle Parsons, actress
(Bonnie & Clyde) is 87
Rex Reason, Berlin,
actor (Man Without a Gun) is 86
Dick Smothers, comedian
(Smother Brothers' Show) is 75
Joseph Biden Jr, 47th US
Vice President is 72
Norman Greenbaum, folk
singer (Spirit in the Sky) is 72
Joe Walsh, guitarist/rocker
(Eagles-Take it Easy) is 67
Bo Derek, [Mary Collins], actress (10) is 58
Remembered
for being born today
Selma Lagerlöf, Nobel
laureate (The Wonderful Adventures of Nils), (1858-1940)
Edwin Hubble,
astronomer (discoverer of galaxies, red shift) (1889-1953)
Reginald Denny, actor (Cat
Ballou, Batman) (1891-1967)
Chester Gould,
cartoonist (Dick Tracy) (1900-1985)
Fran Allison, actress
(Kukla, Fran & Ollie) (1907-1989)
Alistair Cooke, TV host
(Masterpiece Theatre) (1908-2004)
Judy Canova,
Jacksonville Fla, comedienne/actress (Cannonball) (1913-1983)
Jim Garrison,
American district attorney and judge (1921-1992)
Robert Francis Kennedy, (Sen-NY, US
Attorney General), (1925-1968)
Dick Clark, TV host
(American Bandstand), (1929-2012)
Richard Dawson, actor
(Hogan's Heroes, Family Feud), (1932- 2012)
Jack Linkletter, TV host
(Hootenanny) (1937-2009)
• • • •
Historical
Obits Today
Francisco Franco, Spanish
dictator (1936-75), dies at 82
Leo Tolstoy, Russian
earl/writer (War & Peace), 1910, @82
John Fowler, English
engineer (London Metropolitan Railway), 1898, @81
Bill Scott, cartoon
voice (Mr Peabody, Bullwinkle), heart attack, 1985, @65
Rob Lytle,
Bronco’s football player, heart attack, 2010, @56
Tom Horn, American gunfighter and outlaw,
hanged. 1903, @42
•
• • •
Brain Teasers Answers
Antelope. Move it from the end to the beginning; the initial
letters will then spell ALPHABET.
• • • •
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…§
