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Almanac: Week: 50 \ Day: 344
December
Averages: 44°\17°
86004 Today: H 42°\L 28° FOG
Ave. humidity: 90% Average Sky Cover: 35%
Wind ave: 4mph\Gusts: 11mph
Ave. High: 44° Record
High: 65° (1939)
Ave. Low: 17° Record
Low: -2° (1956)
Holiday Observances
Today:
Admission Day (Mississippi-1817-20th)
Constitution Day (Thailand-1932)
¤ ¤
Dewey
Decimal System Day
Human
Rights Day
International Shareware
Day
Jane
Addams Day
National Day of the Horse
Nobel
Prize Day
Observances This
Week:
7-13
National Hand Washing Awareness
Week
Recipe Greetings For The Holidays
Week
Computer Science Education Week
10-17
Human
Rights Week
• • • • • • •
Quote of
the Day
Historical
Highlights for Today
1520 - Martin Luther publicly burned papal
edict demands he recant
1690 - Massachusetts Bay becomes 1st colonial
government to borrow money
1745 - Bonnie Prince Charlie's army reaches
Manchester
1799 - Metric system adopted in France, first
country to do so
1864 - General Sherman's armies reach Savannah
& 12 day siege begins
1869 - Women suffrage (right to vote) granted in
Wyoming Territory (US 1st)
1901 – 1st
Nobel Peace Prizes awarded (to Jean Henri Dunant, Frederic Passy)
1902 - Women are given the right to vote in
Tasmania
1948 - UN General Assembly adopts Universal
Declaration of Human Rights
1963 - 6-year old Donny Osmond's singing debut on
Andy Williams Show
1984 - 1st "planet" outside our solar
system discovered
1995 - Worst snowstorm in Buffalo history,
37.9" in 24 hours
2013 - Uruguay
becomes the 1st country to legalize growth, sale, use of marijuana
• • • • • • •
♫
Birthdays Today: ♫
How many can you identify? Answers below in Birthday’s Today
My
Rambling Thoughts
What a day. Did my weekly check of my bank accounts on-line. A
couple of days ago I got a new card and registered it. Didn’t really understand
because the current card was not expiring until 2017. When I got on line I
found that my new card, a VISA had replaced my old card, a MasterCard. Called
the help desk because my past statements on the MC were not available. Turns
out, they magically moved the MC statements to the new cards VISA history. Now I
have 2 VISA cards with the same bank and no MC. Hmmm. I’m sure it was a battle
between the bank and the credit card company about fees. And I, the customer
who pays bills by auto pay, had to call notify 4 auto pay accounts of the
change. Sounds easy but took about 2 hours. I’m so tired of companies making
changes without asking the customers and just being piss-y with the other
company by dropping them. I have carried VISA and MC since I was in high
school. Same thing that happened with my Cable company and Viacom. In that
story they dropped Comedy Central and others and gave us 24/7 Glenn Beck and
others.
Then I got ready to head out and found I had a weak battery,
vehicle wouldn’t start. So much for buying cheap batteries. Still awaiting the
dealership to call and say the vehicle is ready.
Good news too, the landscape company has been here all day. They
cleaned out our gutters of pine needles, and blew away most of the pine needles
in the rocks, then cleaned up the parking area of pine needles. Nice, just in time as a snowstorm is a brewin’.
• • • • • • •
Brain
Teasers
(answers at the end of post)
What
phrase is represented below?
YOUR LIONS
Gulp UR LIONS
GulpGulp LIONS
GulpGulpGulp NS
GulpGulpGulpGulp
Found on
You Tube with some relevance to today
OK Then…
• • • • • • •
Paraphernalia
4 the Brain:
December
Holiday Facts
*Christmas-Christian
¤ Alabama was the 1st state to officially recognize Christmas in
1836.
¤ Christmas wasn’t declared an official holiday in the US until
June 26, 1870.
¤ Oklahoma was the last U.S. state to declare Christmas a legal
holiday, in 1907.
*Hanukkah-Jewish
The
Menorah
The lighting of the menorah, known in Hebrew as the hanukiya, is
the most important Hanukkah tradition. A menorah is a candlestand with nine
branches. Usually eight candles - one for each day of Hanukka - are of the same
height, with a taller one in the middle, the shamash ("servant"),
which is used to light the others. Each evening of Hanukkah, one more candle is
lit, with a special blessing.
The menorah symbolizes the burning light in the temple, as well as
marking the eight days of the Hanukkah festival. Some say it also celebrates
the light of freedom won by the Maccabees for the Jewish people.
*Kwanza-African-American
Principles
Ujima (oo-JEE-mah)
or cooperation and working together. Helping to build a community and
solve problems together.
*12 Days of Christmas
Eight
Maids A-milking
The eight Beatitudes: 1) Blessed are the poor in spirit, 2) those
who mourn, 3) the meek, 4) those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, 5)
the merciful, 6) the pure in heart, 7) the peacemakers, 8) those who are
persecuted for righteousness' sake. (Matthew 5:3-10)
Flagstaff,
AZ History…
50 YEARS
AGO
A thick 10" blanket of blinding snow accompanied by gusty
winds fell on Sunday. 18" fell on the lower slopes at the Snow Bowl while
there is about 3 feet on the upper slopes. Even Sedona got 3" there was a
hundreds of cars stand still on the Black Canyon Highway due to cars not having
chains on. Then on Tuesday the temperature fell to a record low for the day of
10 degrees.
Flagstaff’s
Iconic 50…
San
Francisco Peaks Groundsel
The San Francisco Peaks themselves contain four of the six life
zones. The four life zones which are found along the slopes of the San
Francisco Peaks are listed below along with their approximate elevation ranges,
dominant tree species found within each of the four life zones and average
annual precipitation of each life zone:[9]
Ponderosa
Pine forests — The elevation of this zone ranges from approximately 6,000 to
8,500 feet (1,800 to 2,600 m) above sea-level. The dominant tree species is the
Southwestern Ponderosa Pine (Pinus brachyptera Engelm.). Gambel oak (Quercus
gambelii) is a common associate of the ponderosa pine at lower elevations in
the forest along with New Mexico locust (Robina neomexicana). At higher
elevations, associates include southwestern white pine (Pinus strobiformis),
Rocky Mountain Douglas-fir, (Pseudotsuga menziesii var. glauca), Rocky Mountain
white fir (Abies concolor var. concolor), and Quaking Aspen (Populus
tremuloides). The average annual amount of precipitation in this zone is 18 to
26 inches (460 to 660 mm).
Mixed
conifer forest — The elevation of this zone ranges from approximately 8,000 to
9,500 feet (2,400 to 2,900 m) above sea-level. Species such as Douglas-fir
(Pseudotsuga menziesii var. glauca), White Fir (Abies concolor), Limber Pine
(Pinus flexilis var. reflexa), Blue Spruce (Picea pungens), and less commonly
Southwestern White Pine (Pinus flexilis) form mixed stands in this community,
with Ponderosa Pine (Pinus brachyptera Engelm.) joining the mix on warmer
slopes. The average annual amount of precipitation in the mixed conifer forest
is 25 to 30 inches (640 to 760 mm).
Subalpine
conifer forest — The elevation of this zone varies from approximately 9,500 to
11,500 feet (2,900 to 3,500 m) feet above sea-level. The dominant tree species
of this zone are Englemann Spruce (Picea engelmannii subsp. engelmannii),
Corkbark Fir (Abies lasiocarpa var. arizonica), Quaking Aspen (Populus
tremuloides) and the Rocky Mountain Bristlecone Pine (Pinus aristata).[10] The
average annual amount of precipitation in the subalpine forest is 30 to 40
inches (760 to 1,020 mm).
Alpine
tundra — The San Francisco Peaks are the home of the only alpine tundra
environment in Arizona, occupying 1,200 acres (4.9 km2) above 10,600 feet
(3,200 m).[11][12] Only a few small herbaceous plants have established
themselves in the tundra. One of these species, is the endemic and threatened
San Francisco Peaks groundsel (Packera franciscana), which is found nowhere
else in the world.[13][14][15] The average annual amount of precipitation in
the tundra is 35 to 40 inches (890 to 1,020 mm).
Harper’s
Index…
Cost to be buried beside your pet at the People and Pet Gardens in
Hermitage, PA: $795
Rules of
Thumb…
LOOK
FOR THE EXIT SIGN
When giving a speech
in a public setting, speak directly to the red glowing exit sign. It's
generally at the back of the auditorium/conference room. It's up high and easy
to find. Plus you won't be distracted by looking in to the face of an audience
member.
Unusual
Fact of the Day…
Madonna's
last name is Ciccone.
• • • • • • •
Joke-of-the-day
This guy needs a job and decides to apply at
the zoo. As it happened, their star attraction, a gorilla, had passed away the
night before and they had carefully preserved his hide. They tell this guy that
they'll pay him well if he would dress up in the gorilla’s skin and pretend to
be the gorilla so people will keep coming to the zoo. Well, the guy has his
doubts, but Hey! He needs the money, so he puts on the skin and goes out into
the cage. The people all cheer to see him. He plays up to the audience and they
just eat it up. This isn't so bad, he thinks, and he starts really putting on a
show, jumping around, beating his chest and roaring, swinging around. During
one acrobatic attempt, though, he loses his balance and crashes through some
safety netting, landing square in the middle of the lion cage! As he lies there
stunned, the lion roars. He's terrified and starts screaming, "Help, Help,
Help!" The lion races over to him, places his paws on his chest and
hisses, "Shut up or we'll BOTH lose our jobs!"
Yep, It
Really Happened
MIAMI
(UPI)
Federal prosecutors said a for-profit college in Florida hired
"exotic dancers" to work as "admissions representatives" to
attract young men to the school. The U.S. attorney's office and Florida
Attorney General Pam Bondi, who joined a whistle-blower lawsuit against
Miami-based FastTrain College, said in a civil complaint at least one of the school's
now-closed seven campuses used strippers as "admissions
representatives." The college "purposely hired attractive women and
sometimes exotic dancers and encouraged them to dress provocatively while they
recruited young men in neighborhoods to attend FastTrain," the complaint
states. The whistle-blower lawsuit was originally filed by Juan Pena, a former
admissions employee at the Plantation campus and the Flagler campus. The
school's campuses were shut down in 2012 following a raid by the FBI. Alejandro
Amor, chief executive officer of the company, was indicted in October on
criminal charges of conspiracy and theft of government money. Federal
authorities said the school received more than $35 million in Pell grants and
other federal financial aid between 2009 and 2012, and they allege the school
obtained a large amount of grant money through fraudulent means including
falsifying high school diplomas for ineligible students.
Somewhat
Useless Information
Cider's
history is long, we're talking Colonial times -- the Founding Fathers are known
to have enjoyed it regularly. President John Adams drank a tankard of cider
every morning because he believed it promoted good health.
Made from apples, water and little else, most ciders are naturally gluten free.
Ciders - unlike beers and wines - are governed by the Federal Drug
Administration, which means they are required to list the ingredients on the
bottle or can.
Prohibition and a deep frost in the 1930s nearly killed off the cider industry
altogether. It has since been slowly rebuilding and experiencing a rebirth in
popularity.
Most ciders are a blend of different apples that, together, give a desired
balance (single-varietal ciders are also produced). To help facilitate the
blending, cider apples are organized into four main categories: Sweets, Sharps,
Bittersweets, and Bittersharps.
You'll need lots of apples to make your own cider. It takes about 36 pieces of
fruit to make one gallon.
• • • • • • •
Today’s
Events through History
1672 - NY Gov Lovelace announces monthly mail
service between NY & Boston
1836 - Emory College (now Emory University) is
chartered in Oxford, Georgia
1946 - German/Swiss novelist Hermann Hesse wins
the Nobel Prize in Literature "for his inspired writings which, while
growing in boldness and penetration, exemplify the classical humanitarian
ideals and high qualities of style"
• • • • • • •
Birthday’s
Today
Tommy
Kirk, actor (Old Yeller) is 73
Susan Hallock Dey, actress (Partridge Family, LA Law) is
62
Nia
Peeples, [Vernia], dancer/host (Fame, Party Machine) is 53
Bobby
Flay, American celebrity chef and restaurateur is 50
Raven-Symoné, actress
and singer is 29
Remembered
for being born today
Emily
Dickinson, Amherst Mass, poet (Collected Poems), [1830-1886]
Melvil[le Louis
K] Dewey, created Dewey
Decimal System for libraries [1851-1931]
Chet
Huntley, newscaster (NBC Huntley-Brinkley Report) [1911-1974]
Dorothy
Lamour, [Mary Kaumeyer], actress\singer (Road to Bali) [1914-1996]
Harold
Gould (Goldstein), actor (Martin-Rhoda) [1923-2010]
Dan
Blocker, actor (Tiny-Cimarron City, Hoss-Bonanza) [1928-1972]
Ross
Taylor [Robert Murray Taylor], Scottish transplant surgeon pioneered
kidney transplantations [1932-2003]
Abu Abbas, founder
of the Palestine Liberation Front [1948-2004]
• • • • • • •
Historical
Obits Today
Red Cloud, Sioux
chief, 1909, @87ish
Freeman "Amos"
Gosden, US radio actor (Amos 'n' Andy), 1982, @83
Richard
Pryor, comedian and actor, heart attack, 2005, @65
Faron
Young, country singer/actor, suicide, 1996, @64
Alfred
Nobel, Swedish Nobel Prize ceremony on this date, 1896, @63
Otis
Redding, singer (Dock of Bay), plane crash1967, @26
• • • • • • •
Brain Teasers Answers
Swallow Your Pride
• • • • • • •
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…§
