4-30-15

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Almanac: Week: 18 \ Day: 120
April Averages: 58°\27°
86004 Today: H 72°\L 35° Average Sky Cover: 10% 
Wind ave:   16mph\Gusts:  0mph
Ave. High: 62° Record High:  78° (1981) Ave. Low: 30° Record Low:  10° (1967)
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Observances Today:

Adopt A Shelter Pet Day               Poem In Your Pocket Day
Beltane-Gaelic festival                        National Honesty Day
Bugs Bunny Day                  Hairstyle Appreciation Day
Díá De Los Niños / Díá De Los Libros Day
Spank Out Day – USA-bringing an end to spanking
Walpurgis Night- eve of the feast day of German Saint Walpurga, an 8th-century abbess
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Observances This Week:
24-30
Interstate Mullet Toss       National Dance Week
National Dream Hotline    National Scoop The Poop Week

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Quote of the Day 

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US Historical Highlights for Today
1562 - 1st French colonists in North America arrive in Florida
1598 - 1st theater performance in America (Spanish comedy-Rio Grande)
1789 - George Washington inaugurated as first president of the USA
1798 - US Department of the Navy forms
1803 - US doubles in size through Louisiana Purchase ($15 million)
1812 - (Eastern) Louisiana admitted as 18th US state
1860 - Fort Defiance, in northwestern Arizona, was the first fort to be build in
NAVAJO country. Built near land used by Manuelito's NAVAJOs to graze their horses, an inevitable conflict begins when the army claims the grazing land for their own mounts. A series of raids on both sides leads to a full scale attack. On this date, Manuelito, and nearly 1,000 warriors attack Fort Defiance. TheNAVAJOs capture a few outbuildings, but the soldiers soon regroup and volleys are exchanged throughout the rest of the day. The NAVAJOs will leave that night considering the message delivered. The Army will eventually retaliate
1861 - Lincoln ordered Federal Troops to evacuate Indian Territory (US Civil War)
1885 - Boston Pops Orchestra forms
1889 - 1st US national holiday, on centennial of Washington's inauguration
1900 - USA annexes Hawaii
1900 - Casey Jones dies in a train wreck on the Cannonball Express
1904 - Ice cream cone makes its debut
1927 - Mrs. William Henry Brophy gave $250,000 and 25 acres of land to
  endow and build a Jesuit school in Phoenix
1939 - New York World's Fair opens
1947 - Boulder Dam renamed in honor of Herbert Hoover
1952 - Mr Potato Head is 1st toy advertised on television
1970 - US troops invade Cambodia
1975 - Last US helicopter leaves US embassy grounds, Saigon surrenders
1989 - Critics Siskel & Ebert film their 500th TV movie-review show
1993 - The World Wide Web is born at CERN
1996 - US President Clinton approves the sale of $227 million of crude oil
 from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve; US gas prices are at their highest  
  levels in 5 years
2012 - The unfinished One World Trade Center overtakes the Empire State
 building to become the tallest building in New York
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Today’s World Events through History
1492 - Columbus is given royal commission to equip his fleet
1492 - Spain announces it will expels all Jews
1859 - Charles Dickens' "A Tale Of Two Cities" is 1st published in literary
  periodical All the Year Round, continues in weekly installments until Nov 26
1911 - Portugal approves female suffrage
1961 - Premier Fidel Castro of Cuba receives Lenin-Peace Prize
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Birthdays Today:
How many can you identify? Answers below in Birthday’s Today 

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My Rambling Thoughts
Last night, about 8pm I was watching TV and using my iPad. No wifi connection. Went upstairs to check the modem. Red lights…not a good sign. Looked up the number to call CentruyLink, picked up the landline to see the message ‘no line’. Reported the problem with my cell phone. The automated check of the line said everything was fine. Finally get a human…after pushing at least 6 more prompts. She says there is a ‘short in the line’. Of course I have to unplug the phone, the modem, wait, then replug them in to see if that fixes it. I had done that before calling, but she made me do it again. A trouble ticket was finally made and the repair guy would be at the house between 9a and 1p and I had to be home. She reminded me that if the problem was ‘inside my home’ there would be an $85 minimum charge + the time it took to locate and fix the problem. At about 11:30 Jay calls to tell me that everything works. He says when he opened ‘the box’ there was a problem, but after unplugging my line to test it at ‘the box’ everything was fine. When he plugged it back in, everything was fine. He guesses the connection was not plugged in properly. This is the same box that hooked up my faster wifi a few weeks ago. Duh…that explains my ‘no connection’ messages I had been getting and had nothing to do with the modem that took 30 minutes to ‘reset’ a few weeks ago. Frustrating. Then about noon I got an email that my problem was fixed. Then at 1p Greg called to be sure everything was working. I sure wish their call centers were as careful as the follow up team that calls. No wonder our phone bills keep going up…with so many workers.
Beautiful day, got a lot done with no internet connection.
I learned several things to ponder today. A recent study was done with mice. A white mouse was trained to open a glass door so another mouse could join him/her. After the mouse leaned the skill, a white mouse was placed on the other side of the door. The mouse opened the door and they joined each other. A black mouse was placed on the other side of the door. The white mouse didn’t open the door. Hmmm. Then the white mouse and the black mouse were put in the same cage for a few days. Then the black mouse was put on the other side of the door. The white mouse opened the door so they could be in the same cage. Study will continue with humans. Then I was watching CNN and they were doing a split screen. The Baltimore Philharmonic were doing a free concert just outside their theater. They were playing the Star Spangled Banner and other songs. The crowd was enthusiastic. On the other split screen were the concurrent protest marches in another part of Baltimore. The protest marchers were mostly Black but there were a fair number of whites there too. At the free concert the crowd appeared to be very very white. Finally FB had a post of a protest sign that read “Privilege is when you think something is not a problem because it is not a problem to you personally” President Obama is correct when he says it is time for the American people do some serious soul searching.   
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Brain Teasers
(answers at the end of post)
Following are groups of three words. Can you figure out the common link within each group? 

Example: Hurricane, camera, needle (answer: eyes)

1: Barber, Rooster, Beehive
2: Bowling Alley, Tailor, Wrestling Match
3: Telephone, Deck of Cards, Car Trunk
4: Fishing Rod, Actor, Checkout Counter
5: Watermelon, Tennis Tournament, Idea

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Found on You Tube with some relevance to today
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…Cool Facts…
~ There is a bed called the Cuddle Mattress that it is divided into layers of foam for your arm to slip though.
~ Valentine Tapley promised to never shave again if Abraham Lincoln was elected president. He died in 1910 with a 12-foot-long beard.
~ Ecosia is a search engine that helps to save the environment by donating 80% of its income to planting trees in Brazil.

…Flagstaff, AZ History…
75 YEARS AGO-1940
Monday the Highway Department is to begin work on the underpass. There is to be concrete from South Sitgreaves to the junction with Route 79. It is to be expected that the curve north to Santa Fe will be straightened out and will include a sidewalk on the east side of the underpass.
Sheriff Ernest Yost arrested a local suspect at the depot with a ticket for Phoenix in hand Wednesday night on a charge of felony, the suspect having taken seven new pistols from the Babbitt Retail Hardware Store.
Lee Doyle is currently aiding two groups of movie men, one from the Republic Studios the other from Harry Sherman Productions. Both are here seeking locations for their upcoming films.

…Harper’s Index…
$41,000-Average cost for a Canadian family to adopt a white U.S. child through the Shepherd Care agency in Florida
$32,000-To adopt a black U.S. child

…Linguistic Facts…
English is widely used as an official language. However, whether a country has English as its official language says little about how its citizens really communicate with one another. In many nations, only a tiny minority learned English as a native language.

…Murphy’s Real Laws…
20.    Just remember if it wasn't for gravity, we'd all fall off. (Or up)

21.    The 50-50-90 rule:     Anytime you have a 50-50 chance of getting something right, there's a 90% probability you'll get it wrong.

…Unusual Fact of the Day…
Every year 0.1 percent of BB gun shootings are attempted suicides. That means about 30 people every year try to kill themselves with the tiny pellets.
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2 jokes for the day
A five-dollar bill walks into a bar.

Bartender says, "Get outta here! We don't serve your type. This is a singles bar."

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Reaching the end of a job interview, the human resources person asked a young engineer fresh out of MIT, "And what starting salary were you looking for?" The engineer said, "In the neighborhood of $125,000 a year, depending on the benefits package." 
The interviewer said, "Well, what would you say to a package of 5-weeks vacation, 14 paid holidays, full medical and dental, company matching retirement fund to 50% of salary, and a company car leased every 2 years - say, a red Corvette?" 
The engineer sat up straight and said, "Wow! Are you kidding?" And the interviewer replied, "Yeah, but you started it." 

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Yep, It Really Happened
LUCE COUNTY, Mich. (UPI) - Two sisters lost in the woods for nearly two weeks survived on Girl Scout cookies, cheese puffs and snow before being rescued Friday. Rescue workers found Lee Wright, 56, and Leslie Roy, 52, after their SUV got stuck April 11 in the deep snow in a tree-canopied area in Michigan's remote Upper Peninsula. They were weak but in otherwise fine condition, authorities said. "It is unbelievably remarkable," said Michigan State Police Detective Sgt. Jeff Marker, who assisted in the rescue. "They had multiple layers of clothes on and they were rationing their food." Roy, from Nebraska, and Wright, from Oklahoma, left the town of Ishpeming after visiting their relatives and planned to make a three-hour drive to Mackinaw City but never arrived. Their vehicle got stuck near Crisp Point, in an area they couldn't get cellphone service. While stranded, they relied on eight boxes of Girl Scout cookies and a bag of cheese puffs for food and melted snow for water. Friday, state police in a helicopter spotted the women. Police hiked 25 minutes before reaching them. "When we pulled up, they grabbed their purses and Lee Wright clutched onto her Bible and both women were very happy," Marker said. "It was hugs all around."       
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Somewhat Useless Information
~ Bears, seals, and dogs are closely related carnivores but are on a different branch of the evolutionary tree than cats and hyenas.
~ Some snakes have hipbones, which shows they once had four legs like lizards, their close cousins.
~ Inside some whales and dolphins are small bones that show they once had back legs and that their ancestors walked on land. These occasionally reappear as tiny rear flippers.

~ Darwin did not argue that humans came from monkeys. Rather he wrote only that monkeys, apes, and humans have a common ancestor.
~ A hobbit-like species of human lived about 18,000 years ago. About the size of a 3-year-old, they lived with pygmy elephants and 10-foot-long lizards.

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Birthday’s Today
89 - Cloris Leachman, actress (Last Picture Show, Phyllis)
72 - Bobby Vee, Fargo ND, (Devil or Angel, Night has a Thousand Eyes)
67 - Perry King, Alliance OH, actor (Riptide)
56 - Paul Gross, Calgary Alberta, Canadian actor, director, and writer
56 - Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada
54 - Isiah Thomas, NBA forward (Piston; 1990 NBA playoff MVP)
33 - Kirsten Dunst, actress (Interview with the Vampire, Spider-Man)
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Remembered for being born today
Alice B. Toklas, American companion of Gertrude Stein 1877-1967@89 
John Peters Humphrey, (Universal Declaration on Human Rights) 1905-1995@89 
Eve Arden, actress (Connie-Our Miss Brooks) 1908-1990@82 
Al Lewis, actor (Leo-Car 54, Grandpa-Munsters) 1923-2006@82 
Carl Friedrich Gauss, Prince of Mathematicians 1777-1855@77 
Gary Collins, actor (6th Sense, Home Show) 1938-2012@76 
Jill Clayburgh, actress (Unmarried Woman, Semi-Tough) 1944-2010@66 
Johnny Horton, American musician 1925-1960@35
Historical Obits Today
Tom Poston, actor (Newhart)-2007@85
Agnes Moorehead, actress (Endora-Bewitched), cancer-1974@73
Muddy Waters, US blues singer/guitarist (Mad Love), heart failure-1983@70
Elmo Roper, pollster (Roper Poll)-1971@70
Sergio Leone, Italian director (Good, Bad & Ugly), heart attack-1989@60
Adolf Hitler, German Dictator (1936-45), suicide-1945@56
John Luther (Casey) Jones, Cannonball Express train wreck-1900@37
Inger Stevens, actress (Katy-Farmer's Daughter), suicide-1970@35
Eva Braun, German mistress/wife of Hitler, suicide-1945@33
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Brain Teasers Answers
1: Combs
2: Pins
3: Jacks
4: Lines
5: Seeds

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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…§


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Flagstaff, Arizona, United States
I retired in '06--at the ripe old age of 57. I enjoy blogging, photography, traveling, and living life to it's fullest.