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Almanac: Week: 52 \ Day: 355
December
Averages: 44°\17°
86004
Today: H 48°\L 20°
Ave. humidity: 42% Average Sky Cover: 10%
Wind
ave: 6mph\Gusts: 15mph
Ave. High: 43° Record High: 61°
(1969)
Ave. Low: 16° Record Low: -6° (1967)
Holiday Observances
Today:
Winter
Solstice
Yalda (Iran- The
longest and darkest night of the year is a time when friends and family gather
together to eat, drink and read poetry (especially Hafez) until well after
midnight. Fruits and nuts are eaten and pomegranates and watermelons are
particularly significant. The red color in these fruits symbolizes the crimson
hues of dawn and glow of life. The poems of Divan-e-Hafez, which can be found
in the bookcases of most Iranians families, are intermingled with peoples' life
and are read or recited during various occasions like this festival and at
Nowruz.)
¤ ¤
Crossword Puzzle Day
Forefathers
Day
Global
Orgasm Day
Humbug
Day
International
Dalek Remembrance Day-from Dr. Who
Look on the Bright Side
Day
National Flashlight Day
National
Homeless Persons' Remembrance Day
Phileas
Fogg-Win A Wager Day
World
Peace Day
Yule
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
1784 - John Jay becomes 1st US Secretary of
State (foreign affairs)
1864 - General Sherman conquers Savannah,
Georgia
1898 - Scientists Pierre & Marie
Curie discovers radium
1913 - 1st crossword puzzle (with 32 clues) printed
in NY World
1929 - 1st group hospital insurance plan offered
(Dallas Tx)
1932 - Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers, 1st
joint movie (Flying Down to Rio)
1933- Fox Films signs Shirley Temple, 5, to a
studio contract
1937 - 1st feature-length color & sound cartoon
premieres (Snow White)
1941 - Last NFL drop kick for an extra point (Ray
McLean, Chicago Bears)
1948 - State of Eire (formerly Irish Free State)
declares its independence
1959 - Tom Landry accepts coaching job with
Dallas Cowboys (stays until 1988)
1968 - Apollo 8 (Borman, Lovell & Anders) 1st
manned Moon voyage
1988 - Pan Am Flight 103 destroyed midair by a terrorist
bomb kills all 258
1995 - The city of Bethlehem passes from Israeli to
Palestinian control
2012 - "Gangnam Style"-the 1st video to
reach one billion views on YouTube
• • • • • • •
♫
Birthdays Today: ♫
How many can you identify? Answers below in Birthday’s Today
My
Rambling Thoughts
Nice day here in our little mountain town. Got to take a nice
walk. Stayed up late with Netflix again…this time it was Marco Polo…good show.
Organized Christmas gifts/b-day presents to be sure I enough bags
that were the right size. I’m in good shape.
Quiet night planned.
• • • • • • •
Brain
Teasers
(answers at the end of post)
Bob
Lowry was going to compete in a marathon. He called the number he heard on the
radio and signed up with his 2 friends. He started running and was doing a good
job, but 1/3 of the way through, he stopped and did not continue running for
the duration of the race. However, his name appeared as one of the top runners
in the newspaper the next day. How did he do that?
He did not take a shortcut or cheat in any way.
Hundreds of people finished the race.
Found on
You Tube with some relevance to today
OK Then…
• • • • • • •
Paraphernalia
4 the Brain:
December
Holiday Facts
*Christmas-Christian
¤ The first printed reference to a Christmas tree was in 1531 in
Germany.
¤ Approximately 30-35 million real (living) Christmas trees are
sold each year in the U.S.
*Hanukkah-Jewish
Hanukkah, the "Festival of Lights," starts on the 25th
day of the Jewish calendar month of Kislev and lasts for eight days and nights.
In 2014, Hanukkah begins at sundown on December 16. With blessings, games, and
festive foods, Hanukkah celebrates the triumphs--both religious and
military--of ancient Jewish heroes.
Flagstaff,
AZ History…
100 YEARS
AGO
Clay Gilbert, Barn Boss at the A. L. & T Camp 1, was kicked in
the chest by one of the big logging horses and severely injured last Friday. He
was immediately brought to the Milton Hospital for treatment. His injury is not
considered dangerous.
Flagstaff’s
Iconic 50…
Humphreys
Peak (Hopi: Aaloosaktukwi, Navajo: Dookʼoʼoosłííd)
is the highest natural point in the U.S. state of Arizona,[4] with
an elevation of 12,637 feet (3,852 m)[1] and is located within the Kachina
Peaks Wilderness in the Coconino National Forest, about 11 miles (17.7 km)
north of Flagstaff, Arizona. Humphreys Peak is the highest of a group of
extinct volcanic peaks known as the San Francisco Peaks. The summit can be most
easily reached by hiking the 4.8 miles (7.7 km) long Humphreys Trail that
begins at the Arizona Snowbowl ski resort in the Coconino National Forest. The
last 1 mile (1.6 km) of the trail traverses the only region of tundra in
Arizona, at an elevation of more than 11,500 feet (3,505 m). Humphreys Peak was
named in about 1870 for General Andrew A. Humphreys, a U.S. Army officer who
was a Union general during the American Civil War, and who later became Chief
of Engineers of the United States Army Corps of Engineers. However, a General
Land Office map from 1903 showed the name San Francisco Peak applied to this
feature (apparently borrowed from San Francisco Mountain on which the peak
stands). Thus the United States Board on Geographic Names approved the variant
name in 1911. In 1933, the application of the names was rectified.
Harper’s
Index…
That Texas collect from undocumented workers year: $1,608,534,000
Rules of
Thumb…
PLANTING
A TREE
When you're planting
a tree, make the hole twice as wide and twice as deep as the root ball. Then
refill the hole one-fourth of the way with good soil before putting in the
tree.
Unusual
Fact of the Day…
Mary
Ann really was prettier than Ginger, at least in beauty pageant terms. Gilligan's
Island star Dawn Wells was beautiful and talented enough to represent
Nevada in the 1960 Miss America pageant.
• • • • • • •
Joke-of-the-day
A city slicker moves to the country and
decides he’s going to take up farming.
He heads to the local co-op and tells the man, “Give me a hundred baby
chickens.”
The co-op man complies. A week later the man returns and says, “Give me two
hundred baby chickens.” The co-op man complies.
Again, a week later the man returns. This time he says, “Give me five-hundred
baby chickens.” “Wow! The co-op man replies “You must really be doing well!”
“Naw,” said the man with a sigh. “I’m either planting them too deep or too far
apart!”
Yep, It
Really Happened
LOS
ANGELES (UPI)
A Los Angeles medical marijuana dispensary removed a pot-smoking
Santa painting from its window following complaints from members of the public.
The Harbor House of Dank in San Pedro hired an artist last week to create
window paintings including Santa Claus smoking a blunt and a snowman holding a
prescription bottle. Pictures of the paintings were posted on Facebook, where
they drew hundreds of complaints. Posts on the closed "Coastal San Pedro
Neighborhood Watch" Facebook group criticized the paintings for being
prominently displayed in an area frequented by children. The paintings were
removed from the windows Tuesday. The store manager said he had the artist
scrape them off the windows when he learned about the complaints from the
public. The furor over the pot-smoking St. Nick may have caused further
troubles for the Harbor House, as Los Angeles Councilman Joe Buscaino's office
said the business is operating illegally. Los Angeles voters passed proposition
D in May, which only allows for 135 dispensaries in business prior to a 2007
moratorium to remain in business, Buscaino's office said. The Harbor House of
Dank has only been open for a few weeks. The dispensary is one of hundreds
being investigated by the City Attorney's Office and the police department,
officials said.
Somewhat
Useless Information
0164 The Channel Tunnel, the longest undersea
tunnel in the world, was constructed in 1994 and made life of many British and
French people easier as they could move from Kent to Coquelles in about 35
minutes.
¤
The first person to propose this idea was Albert Mathieu. In 1802, Mathieu
showed his plan to Napoleon Bonaparte. His plans consisted of two underwater
tunnels with an artificial island halfway between the two countries.
¤
Although Napoleon liked the idea, nothing came of it. There were two other
attempts to revive this plan, but the final decision was taken in 1987 – the
starting point of the railway tunnel’s construction.
• • • • • • •
Today’s
Events through History
1829 - 1st stone arch railroad bridge in US
dedicated, Baltimore
1919 - J. Edgar Hoover deports
anarchists/feminist Emma Goldman to Russia
1921 - Supreme Court rules labor injunctions &
picketing unconstitutional
1976 - UN General Assembly passes a resolution
declaring 1979-Year of Child
• • • • • • •
Birthday’s
Today
Phil
Donahue, talk show host (Phil Donahue Show) is 79
Jane
Fonda, actress (Barbarella, Klute), physically fit is 77
Samuel L. Jackson, actor (Pulp Fiction)
is 66
[Christine] Chris
Evert, tennis champion (18 singles Gram Slams) is 60
Jane Kaczmarek, actress
(Malcom in the Middle) is 59
Andy Dick, actor
(Matthew-Newsradio) is 49
Remembered
for being born today
Thomas
Becket, archbishop of Canterbury [1118-1170@50ish]
Roger
Williams, English theologian and colonist [1603-1683@80ish]
Benjamin
Disraeli, (Tory) British PM [1804-188@76]
Kurt
Waldheim, Nazi/4th UN Sec-Gen/Austrian Pres [1918-2007@88]
Paul
Winchell, ventriloquist (Jerry Mahoney, Knucklehead Smith) [1922-2005@82]
Joe
Paterno, football coach (Penn State, SI Sportsman) [1926-2012@85]
Ed Nelson, actor
(Peyton Place, A Long Came a Spider) [1928-2014@85]
Frank
Zappa, rocker (Mothers of Invention) [1940-1993@52]
• • • • • • •
Historical
Obits Today
Margaret
E Rey, author of Curious George, 1996, @90
Rod
Cameron, actor (Santa Fe Passage, Stampede), 1983, @73
George
S Patton, US General. congestive heart failure, 1945, @60
F Scott
Fitzgerald, author (Zelda), heart attack, 1940, @44
Richard
Long, actor (Nanny & Professor), multiple heart attacks, 1974, @47
• • • • • • •
Brain Teasers Answers
He was running a marathon relay.
His friends continued for him after he ran the first 1/3. His team got first
and his name was printed in the newspaper.
• • • • • • •
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…§
