8-25-15

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Almanac: Week: 35 \ Day: 237
August Averages: 78°\50°
86004 Today: H 82° \ L 54° Average Sky Cover: 70% 
Wind ave:   5mph\Gusts:  21mph
Ave. High: 78° Record High: 88°[1985] Ave. Low: 48° Record Low: 36°[2002]
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Observances Today:                  Observances This Week:
Kiss and Make Up Day                       19-23
National Park Service Day                          National Massage Therapy Week
National Second-hand Wardrobe Day         23-29
National Whiskey Sour Day                        National Return To Work Week
                                                          National Safe at Home Week

Independence Day (Uruguay-1825              25-31
                                   from Brazil)              Be Kind To Humankind Week                                 
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Quote of the Day 

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US Historical Highlights for Today
Ethelda Bleibtrey1814 - British forces destroy Library of Congress; 3,000 books (War of 1812)
1886 - 1st international polo meet (US vs England)
1886 - Lt. Charles B. Gatewood, accompanied only by two Apache scouts, entered an Apache camp in the Sierra Madre Mountains south of the Mexican border and persuaded Geronimo to surrender to General Nelson A. Miles.
1916 - US Department of Interior forms National Park Service
1920 - 1st US woman to win in Olympics (Ethelda Bleibtrey-freestyle swimming)
1932 - Amelia Earhart completes transcontinental flight
1950 - Harry Truman orders army to take control of railroad to avert a strike
1952 - Puerto Rico becomes a US commonwealth
1968 - Arthur Ashe becomes 1st African American to win the US singles
1991 - Carl Lewis runs 100m in 9.86 seconds
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World Historical Highlights for Today
  325 - Council of Nicaea ends with adoption of the Nicene Creed establishing the doctrine of the Holy Trinity
1609 - Galileo demonstrates his 1st telescope to Venetian lawmakers
1689 - Montreal taken by Iroquois
1804 - Alice Meynell becomes 1st woman jockey (England)
1868 - Acting Governor Hall of Colorado telegraphs to the military that 200 Indians are "devastating southern Colorado."
1875 - Matthew Webb (UK) becomes 1st to swim English Channel (21h 45m)
1919 - 1st scheduled passenger service by airplane (Paris-London)
1944 - Paris liberated from Nazi occupation (Freedom Tuesday) General De Gaulle walks the Champs Elysees
1958 - Momofuku Ando markets 1st package of precooked instant noodles (Chikin Ramen)
1960 - 17th summer Olympics opens in Rome
1967 - The Beatles go to Wales to study transcendental meditation with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
1989 - Mayumi Moriyama becomes Japan's first female cabinet secretary
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Birthdays Today:
How many can you identify? Answers below in Birthdays Today 

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My Rambling Thoughts
Monday and still awaiting daily monsoon. It is cloudy enough, but no rain has fallen.
Spent the AM with paperwork. My mom left us several small IRA accounts and some stock. Finally got addresses for all that stuff. It hasn’t been on the top of my to do list, since she passed almost 7 years ago. I gave the addresses and stuff to my brother months ago, but he doesn’t seem to have done anything either. I also have a checking account that is attached to one of my investments. A few of my investments go into that account. A few years ago I bought some more investments and left $95 in the account. Checked on it today and it has grown slightly—to $30K…nice surprise.
I stop by Big Lots about once a quarter, just to see what they have. Found something for my front door, but when I went to the line there were 2 registers open and 5 people in each lane. Didn’t want it that bad so will go back later.
My brother gave me a pasta maker several decades ago. I used it for a while then packed it away. Got it out yesterday and made some great pasta, but remembered why I don’t use it more…it takes a lot of time, compared to opening a package of dry noodles and throwing them in the boiling water…time v taste…hmmm
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Brain Teasers
(answers at the end of post)
The pain is gone--it's old news
The memory though is hard to lose
Resulting in, today, the blues,
And dare I say, some darker hues
Can you please make it plain with these clues
What's this reminder of pain? Don't refuse.

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Found on You Tube with some relevance to today
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…Amazing Facts…
There's a restaurant in Albuquerque called Tim's Place that serves breakfast, lunch, and hugs - and it's owned by a man with Down's Syndrome.

The tallest wave in history was the 1958 Lituya Bay, Alaska megatsunami, reaching a height of 1,720 feet (524 meters).
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…Flagstaff, AZ History…
25 YEARS AGO-1990
Friday morning the Amtrak passenger train crashed into a double-box 18-wheeler, peeling the rear trailer off the track. There were no injuries. Five-gallon containers of chlorine granules were scattered at the Enterprise crossing. None was punctured, according Capt. Paul Hellenberg, Public Information Officer of the Flagstaff Fire Department. Ron Lange, conductor of the train, had left the Flagstaff Depot at 7:11 a.m. with 350 passengers aboard and said the impact was unavoidable. He was traveling about 55 mph and was able to slow to about 40 mph when the gates dropped on about 3 feet of the rear trailer.

The Fourth Street merchants are gathering to revitalize their once flourishing commercial corridor and are seeking $20,000 from the city to form a “Main Street.”
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…Harper’s Index…
20,000 – minimum number of pro-Islamic State accounts Twitter has suspended since Oct. 2014
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…Instagram Photo of the Day… 

natgeoPhoto taken by @stevemccurryofficial // Trinidad, Cuba. Trinidad's colorful old homes, cobblestone streets, and tile roofs make it a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
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…Foreigners Find These American Customs Offensive…
8. Having one hand in your pocket
This is considered arrogant in Turkey, as well as some Asian countries, like South Korea.
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…USA Facts…
Americans throw out 4.5 pounds of trash a day - twice that of 40 years ago.

The average American spends a third of their overall time online playing games and using social networks.
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…Unusual Fact of the Day…
Washington state's Mt. Rainier is the tallest volcano in the contiguous United States, measuring nearly 14,500 feet in height. It last erupted in 1854.
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2 jokes for the day
A magician was facing an unruly crowd as his tricks failed to impress them.
To cheer them up, the magician said: 'could anyone please give me an egg. For I shall show you a marvelous trick'
One at the last row shouted: 'If we had an egg with us, it would have reached you long before'

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A famous art collector is walking through the city when he notices a mangy cat lapping milk from a saucer in the doorway of a store and he does a double-take. He recognizes that the saucer is extremely old and very valuable, so he walks casually into the store and offers to buy the cat for two dollars.
The storeowner replies, "I'm sorry, but the cat isn't for sale.
The collector says, "Please, I need a hungry cat around the house to catch mice. I'll pay you twenty dollars for that cat."
And the owner says "Sold," and hands over the cat.
The collector continues, "Hey, for the twenty bucks I wonder if you could throw in that old saucer. The cat's used to it and it'll save me from having to get a dish."
And the owner says, "Sorry buddy, but that's my lucky saucer. So far this week I've sold sixty-eight cats."   

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Yep, It Really Happened
Melbourne, Australia – At Australia’s 6th annual National Disability Summit in Melbourne, all the speaker except one were able-bodied. That person, in a wheelchair, had to e lifted up to the stage because there was no ramp. Furthermore, disabled activists in attendance told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. that the ‘disabled’ section’s table was at the back of the room, food tables were elevated to accommodate standers, and one accessible toilet was being used as storage space.          
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Somewhat Useless Information
The smallest dog on record was a matchbox-size Yorkshire Terrier. It was 2.5" tall at the shoulder, 3.5" from nose tip to tail, and weighed only 4 ounces.

Zorba, an English mastiff, is the biggest dog ever recorded. He weighed 343 pounds and measured 8' 3" from his nose to his tail.

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Dogs can smell about 1,000 times better than humans. While humans have 5 million smell-detecting cells, dogs have more than 220 million. The part of the brain that interprets smell is also four times larger in dogs than in humans.

Dogs like sweets a lot more than cats do. While cats have around only 473 taste buds, dogs have about 1,700 taste buds. Humans have approximately 9,000.

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Birthdays Today
“()” indicates age at death
   94 - Monty Hall, Winnipeg Canada, TV game show host (Lets Make a Deal)
 (92) - Van Johnson, Newport RI, actor (Brigadoon) always wore red socks d.2008
(90) - Mel Ferrer, Elberon New Jersey, actor (Longest Day) d.2008
(80) - Don Defore, actor (George-Hazel) d.1993
  85 - Sean Connery, Edinburgh Scotland, actor (James Bond films)
  84 - Regis Philbin, Bronx, talk & game show host
  82 - Tom Skerritt, actor (Ryan's Four, Alien, Big Bad Mama)
(79) - George C Wallace, Clio Ala, (gov-D-Ala)/pres candidate d.1998
(76) - Althea Gibson, 1st African Am. tennis champion in a major event-d.2013
(75) - Theodor Kocher, Swiss surgeon, thyroid specialist (Nobel 1909) d.1917
(72) - Leonard Bernstein, conductor/composer (West Side Story) d.1990
  66 - Gene Simmons, [Chaim Witz], Haifa Israel, rock guitarist (KISS)
(66) - Richard Greene, English composer/actor (Adv of Robin Hood) d.1985
  61 - Elvis Costello, [Declan Patrick McManus], Lon, rock vocalist (Allison)
(60) - Walt Kelly, cartoonist, creator (Pogo) d,1973
  57 - Tim Burton, Burbank, film director (Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands)
(54) - Ivan IV [Ivan the Terrible], 1st tsar of Russia d.1854
  54 - Billy Ray Cyrus, Flatwoods Ky, country singer (Achy Breaky Heart)
  51 - Blair Underwood, Tacomma Wash, actor (Jonathan-LA Law, High Incident)
  47 - Rachael Ray-Chef, TV host
  39 - Alexander Skarsgård, Swedish actor (True Blood)
  17 - China Anne McClain, Disney actress
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Historical Obits Today
Neil Armstrong, American astronaut-2012@82
Edward [Ted] M. Kennedy, Senator MA-brain cancer-2009@77
Michael Faraday, English scientist-1867@75
Truman Capote, American author (In Cold Blood), liver cancer-1984@59
Friedrich Nietzsche, German Philosopher, syphilis (Hg poisoning)-1900@55
Samantha Smith, actress (Elizabeth-Lime Street), plane crash-1985@13
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Brain Teasers Answers
A bruise.
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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.