Dec 17



FYI: Any blue text is a link. Click to check it out!

Dec. 17, 2019 Week: 51  Day: 351
86004:   H 27° \ L 10° \ Average Sky Cover: 5%

Nearest lightning:  1038mi
Nearest active fire:  468mi.  
Wind:   7mph\Gusts:  14mph  Visibility: 10 mi

Record High: 65°[1980]   Record Low: -14°[1928]
Dec. Averages: 44°\17° (5 days with moisture)

Today’s Quote

“Our first teacher is our own heart.”
Cheyenne
~ Native American Proverb

Observances This Week

3-24
Andisop (Meterological Fiddling)  Link

10-17
Human Rights Week

14-1/5
Christmas Bird Count Week Link 

14-28
Halcyon Days 
(Always 7 days before and 7 days after the Winter Solstice)

15-21
Gluten-free Baking Week Link 

16-20
Cookie Exchange Week

16-24
Posadas

17-23
Saturnalia

Observances for Today

A Christmas Carol Day (Story)
Clean Air Day

National Maple Syrup Day
My Rambling Thoughts

Busy Monday. Headed to the bank to order some Pesos for my trip on Friday. They will arrive on Wednesday. Then to Office Max for some large envelopes to mail multiple cards in one envelope to Chicago In-Laws. Then to the PO to mail said envelopes. When I got home, I called the bank to give them a travel notification. Found out they no longer do travel alerts but will email me if there is a problem. I’m not happy about that, since I rarely check email while traveling. But I’m just an old guy who travels and Chase is a big huge conglomerate that didn’t ask me what I wanted. The same is true for credit cards from Chase. So, I called the number on the back of my credit card. There was a prompt for a travel alert, so I did it. Then I spoke to a live person. She said that the prompt is still there, but doesn’t mean anything and that by my next travel it will be removed. Chase believes that its enhanced security will make travel alerts obsolete. Hmmm.

It was still very cold this morning…at 6am it was 13°. Now at 2p it is a sweltering 31, but feels like a chilly 25°. As I was on the internet machine there was first: a story of the coldest towns in each state based on the last 30 year average. For AZ it was Belmont [11 miles west of Flagstaff] where the coldest month is December with an average low of 25.8°; the average number of days that reach a high of 32° or less is 246.7 days.  For CO is was Crested Butte where the average low is 17.7°; in January, and the average days that have a high of 32° or less is 265.7. Interesting.

The Hallmark channel has many movies. I’m not a regular watcher. The movies are very cookie cutter where most main characters are women who are white. It does have a big following throughout the US. Recently they dropped a commercial that was showing same-sex marriage. Lots of backlash on the internet machine and now Hallmark channel is returning the ads and apologized. Good move.

Today’s Puzzle
Answer at the bottom of this page

A type of dance, a ball sport, a place to stay, an Asian country, and a girl's name. What's her name?

Historical Events

497 BC - The first Saturnalia festival was celebrated in ancient Rome.

1538 - Pope Paul III excommunicated England's Henry VIII.

1777 - American Revolution: France formally recognized the United States.

1790 - The Aztec Stone ('Sun Stone') was excavated in the Zócalo, the main square of Mexico City. It is about 12 feet across and weighs about 24 tons.

1835 - The Great Fire of New York took place in New York City in 1835, destroying hundreds of buildings and killing two people.

1843 - Charles Dicken's A Christmas Carol novella was published by Chapman and Hall. It is one of the most well-known books and stories of all time.

1862 General Ulysses S. Grant issues order #11, expelling Jews from Tennessee

1865 - First performance of the Unfinished Symphony by Franz Schubert.

1880 -The Edison Electric Illuminating Company was incorporated to provide electric light to New York City.

1892 - First issue of Vogue magazine was published.

1903 - Orville piloted the gasoline-powered, propeller-driven biplane he made with his brother Wilbur, which stayed aloft for 12 seconds and covered 120 feet on its inaugural flight near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

1933 - The Chicago Bears beat the New York Giants 23-21 in the first NFL Championship game.

1947 British industrial company BTH receives a patent for holography, invented by Dennis Gabor in their development lab
1957 - The United States successfully launched the first (Atlas) InterContinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) at Cape Canaveral, Florida.

1969 - Tiny Tim married Miss Vicky (Victoria May Budinger) on The Tonight Show.

1969 - The United States Air Force closed its study of UFOs, Project Blue Book.

1979 - The first rocket automobile vehicle to break the sound barrier on land was driven by Stan Barrett who reached 739.7 mph (speed of sound: 761.2) on a 3-mile test-strip at Rogers Lake, Edwards Air Force Base, CA.

1980 - Broadway Show - Amadeus (Play) opened

1982 - Tootsie debuted in theaters.

1989 - The Simpsons television series first premiered on television with the episode "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire".

1991 - Gilbert O'Sullivan's Alone Again (Naturally) was 'sampled' in Biz Markie's "Alone Again," and the United States Federal Court for the Southern District of New York agreed with the 70's artist that Biz needed to get permission to use his music in a very landmark case. That permission typically involves direct payment or a portion of the net profits today.

2000 - In addition to a 17-0 victory by the San Francisco 49ers over the Chicago Bears, San Francisco’s wide receiver Terrell Owens set a new NFL record of 20 catches in a single game.

2003 - The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King was released, and it went on to win 11 Oscars. Score eleven for the nerds! The Lord of the Rings Trilogy were first published in 1954/1955.

2011 - Kim Jong Il, 'Beloved, Brilliant, Perfect, Wise, Unique and Dear' Leader and Father of the People of North Korea, Died. He was also referred to as the Superior Person, Sun of the Communist Future and The Shining Star of Paektu Mountain. #RIP

2013 Angela Merkel is elected Chancellor of Germany
 for a third term

2014 - The United States and Cuba re-established diplomatic relations.

2018 Astronomers identify furthest object in the solar system as 2018 VG18 (nicknamed Farout), 120 x further from the sun than earth

2018 New reports to US Senate say Russian propaganda efforts on social media much more extensive than thought, including targeting African Americans

Birthdays Today

@91 - Alison Uttley, English children's book writer: The Little Grey Rabbit series
      (died in 1976)

@84 - Arthur Fiedler, American conductor
      (died in 1979)

@85 - Marilyn Beck, American journalist
     (died in 2014)

83 - Pope Francis
       (Jorge Mario Bergoglio),
       Argentinian priest, elected Pope on March 13, 2013

@54 - Burt Baskin, American businessman, co-founded Baskin-Robbins
      (died in 1967; heart attack)

@52 - Eddie Kendricks, R&B singer-songwriter:
     The Temptations
(died in 1992; lung cancer)

50 – Chuck Lindell, MMA champion

44 - Milla Jovovich, Ukrainian-American actress

41- Manny Pacquiao, champion boxer

33 - Emma Bell, American actress:
       Frozen II; Walking Dead

Puzzle answer:

Juliet. All of the listed things describe a part of the NATO phonetic alphabet: foxtrot, golf, hotel, India, and, finally, Juliet.



No comments:

Post a Comment

Followers

Total Pageviews

Blog Archive

About Me

My photo
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.