Oct 28

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Oct  28, 2018 Week: 44s \ Day: 301

86004 Today: H 68° \ L 38° \ Average Sky Cover: 10% 

Wind:   0mph\Gusts:  -mph Visibility: 10 mi

Record High: 74°[1950]   Record Low: 13°[1954]

Oct Averages: 63°\31°

Today’s Quote

An eye for an eye only ends up

making the whole world blind.

Mahatma Gandhi

Observances This Week

22-28

Freedom of Speech Week Link   

23-31

Red Ribbon Week Link  
Disarmament Week
Prescription Errors Education & Awareness Week

24-11/11

World Origami Days

25-31

International Magic Week

26-28

Sherlock Holmes Weekend

28-31

Give Wildlife a Brake! Week Link

Today’s Significant US Historical Events

Today’s Significant International Historical Events 

1600’s                                         

1636 Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts founded

1700’s                                         

1726 "Gulliver's Travels" by Jonathan Swift is published by Benjamin Motte in London

1793 Eli Whitney applies for a patent on cotton gin

1800’s                                         

1811 First known purchase of Jane Austen's novel "Sense and Sensibility" by the Prince Regent (later George IV), a fan

1858 R. H. Macy & Co opens 1st store, (6th Ave-NYC) Gross receipts $11.06

1886 Statue of Liberty dedicated by US President Grover Cleveland, celebrated by first confetti (ticker tape) parade in New York City

1900’s                                         

1918 Czechoslovakia gains independence as Austria-Hungary breaks up

1919 Volstead Act passed by US Congress, establishing prohibition, despite President Woodrow Wilson's veto

1936 FDR rededicates Statue of Liberty on its 50th anniversary

1948 Flag of Israel is adopted

1954 Nobel Prize for Literature is awarded to Ernest Hemingway

1958 Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli elected Pope, taking name John XXIII

1962 Cuban missile crisis: US President JFK receives letter from Soviet Leaderr Khrushchev suggesting agreement

1965 Gateway Arch (630' (190m) high) completed in St Louis, Missouri

1988 Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen gives $10 million to University of Washington library

2000’s                                         

2015 World Health Organization ranks Tuberculosis alongside HIV as world's deadliest infectious diseases, killing 1.2 million (2014)

My Rambling Thoughts

It’s been a few busy days and today is also busy. But it’s been a good busy.

Our discussion group meets tonight with the Supreme Court as the topic. Read about 10 good articles on what has happened historically, what is proposed to fix the mess, and what could happen with each fix. Turns out it is a very delicate balancing act to keep politics out of it. Some of the historical changes have worked, some haven’t, and some proposals have been blocked.  The most agreed upon solution is seems to be term-limits. Let’s hope something happens before there is another vacancy.

Just as I was enjoying the fact that the FBI caught the crazy bomb sender, some other crazy shoots up a synagogue. There are way too many crazies with guns in this country.

I’m still getting about 8 robocalls a day about the election. I know I’m getting 8 calls that hang up when the machine comes on. I’m just guessing they are all about the election. Without an election on the horizon, I usually get one call every couple of weeks.

My cell got 5 robocalls from Buffalo NY. I didn’t answer the first 4 but when the 5^th call came in within a 1 hour period I did answer. The female Robo-voice said ‘Hi, this is Jennifer, how are you today?” I screamed ‘stop calling me’ and the mechanical voice said, ‘I have put you on my do not call list.’ Wow. This AI stuff is getting very freaky.

Birthdays Today

@-  indicates age at death

80’s

@80→Jonas Salk,

American medical scientist (created the polio vaccine), born in NYC, New York (d. 1995)

70’s

74→Dennis Franz,

Maywood Ill, actor (Buntz-Hill Street Blues, NYPD Blue)

60’s

69→Caitlyn Jenner [born Bruce Jenner],

American decathalete (Olympic gold 1976), TV personality, and prominent transgender figure, born in Mt Kisco, New York

@67→Eliphalet Remington,

US gun maker (d. 1861)

66→Annie Potts,

actress (Mary Jo-Designing Women), born in Nashville, Tennessee

63→Bill Gates,

American businessman and billionaire (founder and CEO of Microsoft, richest person in the world), born in Seattle, Washington

62→Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,

President of Iran (2005-13), born in Aradan, Iran

@61→Jack Soo [Goro Suzuki],

Japanese-American actor (Flower Drum Song, Barney Miller), born in Oakland, California (d. 1979), multiple cancers

50’s

52→Andy Richter,

Yorkville IL, writer/sidekick (Conan O'Brien)

51→Julia Roberts,

American actress (Mystic Pizza, Pretty Woman), born in Smyrna, Georgia

40’s

46→Brad Paisley,

country singer

44→ Joaquin Phoenix,

actor

Historical Obits Today

80’s

@89→2006 [Arnold] Red Auerbach,

American NBA coach and general manager (Boston Celtics)

@87→1996 Morey Amsterdam,

American comedian and actor (The Dick Van Dyke Show)

@86→1703 John Wallis,

English mathematician and cryptographer who introduced ∞ as a symbol for infinity

@80→2007 Porter Wagoner,

American country singer

70’s

@73→1818 Abigail Adams,

2nd first lady (1797-1801), typhoid fever

@72→1704 John Locke,

English empiricist philosopher; influential Enlightenment thinker and "Father of Liberalism" (Two Treatises of Government)

60’s

@68→1998 Ted Hughes,

Poet and British Poet Laureate (1984-98), colon cancer