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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
10-17
Human
Rights Week
14-1/5
14-28
Halcyon
Days
(Always
7 days before and 7 days after the Winter Solstice)
15-21
16-20
Cookie
Exchange Week
16-24
Posadas
17-23
Saturnalia
Observances for Today
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.
