▼ 9-18-15

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Sept  18, 2015
Almanac: Week: 38 \ Day: 261
September Averages: 74°\42°
86004 Today: H 73° \ L 43° Average Sky Cover: 5% 
Wind ave:   6mph\Gusts:  22mph
Ave. High: 72° Record High: 86°[1956] Ave. Low: 41° Record Low: 27°[1903]
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Observances Today:                         
Chiropractic Founders Day Link
Clean Up The World Weekend: 18-20 Link 

Constitution Day/Pledge Across America
Hug A Greeting Card Writer Day
National Ceiling Fan Day Link
National HIV/AIDS and Aging Awareness Day Link
National Respect Day Link
National Tradesmen Day

World Water Monitoring Day Link
/\
 Independence Day (Chile-1810-from Spain)


Observances This Week:
13-19
Balance Awareness Week Link          
Child Passenger Safety Week Link                  
Dating and Life Coach Recognition Week  
International Housekeepers Week Link
National Assisted Living Week
National Environmental Services Week Link
National Truck Driver Appreciation Week Link


14-18

Health Information and Technology Week Link  
Line Dance Week
National Love Your Files Week Link 
National Postdoc Appreciation Week Link                                       
National Staffing Employee Week Link

16-20

National Guitar Flat-Picking Days

17-23

Constitution Week
Hummingbird Celebration Link
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Quote of the Day 

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US Historical Highlights for Today
1679 - New Hampshire becomes a county in Massachusetts Bay Colony
1755 - Fort Ticonderoga, New York opens
1769 - John Harris of Boston, Massachusetts, builds 1st spinet piano
1789 - 1st loan is made to pay salaries of the presidents & Congress
1793 - US President George Washington lays cornerstone of Capitol building
1842 - 1st edition of Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, published
1851 - New York Times starts publishing (2 cents a copy)
1927 - Columbia Broadcasting System goes on the air with 18 stations
1929 -The first case of bubonic plague ever found in Arizona was found in Yuma
1932 - Actress Peg Entwistle commits suicide by jumping from the letter "H" in the Hollywood sign.
1947 - National Security Act passes
1947 - US Air Force forms
1948 - Ralph J Bunche confirmed as acting UN mediator in Palestine
1957 - "Wagon Train" premieres
1964 - "The Addams Family" premieres on ABC
1965 - "Get Smart" premieres
1965 - "I Dream of Jeannie" premieres on NBC
1972 - 1st black NL umpire (Art Williams-Los Angeles vs San Diego)
1977 - US Voyager I takes 1st space photograph of Earth & Moon together1990 - 500 lb 6' Hershey Kiss is displayed at 1 Times Square, NYC
1994 - Ken Burn's "Baseball" premieres on PBS
1997 - Ted Turner gives $1 billion to UN
2001 – 1st mailing of anthrax letters in the 2001 anthrax attacks.
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World Historical Highlights for Today
1759 - Battle of Quebec ends, French surrender to British who capture Quebec City
1812 - Fire in Moscow destroys 90% of houses & 1,000 churches
1846 - Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning exchange last letters before eloping
1911 - Britain's 1st twin-engine airplane (Short S.39) test flown
1914 - Irish Home Rule bill receives Royal assent
1967 - Yellowknife replaces Ottawa as capital of NW Territories, Canada
1971 - Momofuku Ando markets the first Cup Noodle, packaging it a waterproof polystyrene container
1988 - Burma suspends its constitution
1997 - Voters in Wales vote yes (50.3%) in a referendum on Welsh autonomy.
2007 - Buddhist monks join anti-government protesters in Myanmar, starting what some called the Saffron Revolution.
2014 - Scotland votes 'NO' in a referendum deciding whether or not to stay with the United Kingdom
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Birthdays Today:
How many can you identify? Answers below in Birthdays Today 

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My Rambling Thoughts
Great lunch with our retirement group. Cheryl had a very good long weekend with her son and his family. Grandkids are growing really fast. Mary is not anxiously awaiting her hubby’s half marathon this weekend.
OK, so I watched the debates last night. I am either crazy or something. All I learned was that none of the many, many GOP candidates are exciting me to vote for them. They sure said a lot…about the other candidates. I must admit that I didn’t know much, except for names, of most of the candidates. Some I had never heard of. After last night, I wished I hadn’t ever heard of any of them. ‘Fear of the Enemy’ was to scare all of us about most people not white. Many were talking about this great country heading for ‘end of days’ or at the very least failure. Sad.
Glad I’m not a teacher or administrator in Texas. Some back woods school had a middle schooler arrested and detained at a police station for bringing a homemade clock to school as a science project and then not elaborating on what the clock was really for. The acting principal decided that since he was an A-rab it must be dangerous. President Obama later has invited the student to the White House and the boy says he will doesn’t fit into that school’s culture and will be attending another school.  
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Brain Teasers
(answers at the end of post)
There are three houses built exactly the same. One is filled with cotton, the other with wood, and the third with iron. One day an arsonist sets them all on fire. The sound of sirens was growing louder at the scene. People were screaming. Which house did the ambulance try to put the fire out at first?
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Found on You Tube with some relevance to today
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…Amazing Facts…
Clint Eastwood was in a plane which crashed into the sea. He and the pilot escaped the sinking aircraft and swam 3 miles to safety.

Baks the blind boxer has a seeing eye goose named Buttons; a four-year-old goose who leads the pup around everywhere either by hanging onto him with her neck, or by honking to tell him which way to go.
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…Flagstaff, AZ History…
75 YEARS AGO-1940
H. L. Hoffer, agent for the Shell Oil Co., is signing new contracts for the 1940-41 winter season. Stove Oil 9.5 cents per gallon. Furnace Oil 8.25 cents per gallon. PH. 149.

The Arizona Highway Patrol reports there were 79 accidents in August. Excess speed 17. Driving on the wrong side 12, including one horse. Driving while drunk 9. Blowouts 4. Obscured vision due to dust 3.
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…Harper’s Index…
$18,000,000 – minimum amount NYC has spent to remove wet wipes from the sewer system since 2010
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…Instagram Photo of the Day… 

natgeo@RobertClarkphoto
#MarinaEliott gazes up to the top of #RisingStarCave in the remote site in the #CradleOfHumanKind hear #Johannesburg #SouthAfrica.
The cave has yielded hundreds of fossil bones that represent a new species of #human ancestor, called #HomoNaledi. #LeeBerger, a #Paleoanthropologist from #WitsUniversity in South Africa who lead the team says, "We found a most remarkable creature." For more pictures from the cave and what was found please look at my feed, @RobertClarkphoto
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…Foreigners Find These American Customs Offensive…
25. Blowing Your Nose
In countries like China, France, Japan, Saudi Arabia and even Turkey, blowing your nose in public is not only rude, but considered repulsive.
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…Unusual Fact of the Day…
Napoleon wasn't short. At 5 feet, 7 inches, he was taller than the average French man of the era. The popular myth about his height is the result of his nickname, Le Petit Caporal (The Little Corporal). Early in Napoleon’s military career, French soldiers used the moniker to mock his low position on the Army’s Officer totem pole. Unfortunately for Napoleon, the nickname stuck.
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2 jokes for the day
The choir had just come out of rehearsal.
“Am I to assume that you do a lot of singing at home?” Mr. Harris asked a fellow choir member, David Grey.
“Yes, I sing a lot. I use my voice just to kill time,” said David.
Mr. Harris nodded, “You certainly have a fine weapon.”

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Chicago: One hand on wheel, one hand on horn.
New York: One hand on wheel, one finger out window.
New Jersey: One hand on wheel, one finger out window, cutting across all lanes of traffic.
Boston: One hand on wheel, one hand on newspaper, foot solidly on accelerator.
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Yep, It Really Happened
MAGNITOGORSK, Russia - Russian police said a pair of 5-year-old boys used garden spades to tunnel under a fence and escape their kindergarten in an attempt to purchase a Jaguar. Police in Magnitogorsk said the boys slipped away from their teacher on multiple occasions in the school yard and dug under the fence over the course of several days. The boys were eventually able to squeeze through the tunnel and made their way to a Jaguar showroom a few miles away from the school. Police said the boys told a woman who approached them outside the showroom that they were in the market for a "grown up car." The children were taken to the Ordzhonikidze Police station, where they were released into the custody of their parents. The parents did not pursue a formal complaint against the school or the boys' teachers. Olga Denisenko, acting head of preschool education at the school, was quoted by the Siberian Times as saying disciplinary actions had been taken against employees. "This is a very serious breach of rules. The head of the group that allowed this to happen was fired," she said. "The acting head of the kindergarten has been given administrative notice."
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Somewhat Useless Information
The first Oktoberfest was held in Munich in 1810. It was for the commemoration of the marriage of Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria and Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen. The first celebration included a horse race. 

Unbelievable, but in the beginning, beer was not available at the Oktoberfest. Alcohol could only be purchased and enjoyed outside of the actual venue. Authorities soon realized that it would make sense to open the Oktoberfest venue to vendors and it was only then that the traditional beerhalls became popular.

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Beer consumption surpasses 5 million 1-liter mugs. The mugs themselves are a hot item. Security guards annually recover approximately 150,000 from would-be souvenir hunters. Many are not recovered; the Hofbrau tent alone averages 35,000 missing each year. The fine for stealing a souvenir mug: $60! 

There are many problems every year with young people who overestimate their ability to handle large amounts of alcohol. Many forget that German beer has 7.5 to 8 percent alcohol, and they pass out due to drunkenness. These drunk patrons are often called "Bierleichen" (German for "beer corpses").

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Birthdays Today
“()” indicates age at death
(85) - Jack Warden, Newark NJ, actor (NYPD, Crazy Like a Fox, Norby) d.2006
(84) - Greta Garbo, Stockholm, actress (Grand Hotel, Camille) d. 1990
82 - Robert Blake, Nutley NJ, (Baretta, Little Rascals, Coast to Coast)
(75) - Samuel Johnson, English lexicographer/writer (Boswell's Tour Guide) d.1784
(71) - Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, actor (Jack Benny Show) d.1977
64 - Benjamin Carson, American neurosurgeon, politician GOP
(51) - James Gandolfini, Westwood New Jersey, actor (Tony Soprano) d.2013
45 - Aisha Tyler, American actress and comedian
44 - Lance Armstrong, road cyclist (7 Tour de France wins) barred from sport for using banned drugs
44 - Jada Pinkett Smith, actress (Nutty Professor, Menace II Society)
42 - James Marsden, American TV actor
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Historical Obits Today
Ken Norton, American heavyweight boxer, strokes-2013@70
Dag Hammarskjoeld, UN Sect Gen, air crash over Congo-1961@56
Jimi Hendrix, rock guitarist (Purple Haze), OD-1970@27
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Brain Teasers Answers
Ambulances do not put out fires.
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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.