Jul 31

 

Jul  31, 2021 Week: 31 Day: 212

Ave. Sky Cover:  45%\Visibility: 10 miles

Local Temp:   77°\ 53° Wind: 5mph\ Gusts: 9mph

Moderate risk of fire Active fire: 38mi. \ Lightning: 1mi.

Jul Averages: 82°\51° (9 days w/moisture) 

Today’s Quote

  

Weekly Observations

 

XXXII Olympic Games (postponed from 2020):	23-8/8
RAGBRAI: Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa Women in Baseball Week	25-31
Great Texas Mosquitos Days Quilt Odyssey Week World Lumberjack Championships	29-31
Satchmo Week Superman Days	30-8/1

 

Daily Oberservations

 

National Avocado Day

National Cotton Candy Day

National Jump for Jelly Beans Day

In the Middle East, a delicacy called lokum has been around since biblical times. It’s known as Turkish Delight in English-speaking countries and it is made of sugar syrup boiled with gelatin or pectin which spreads into thin sheets when cool enough to handle. This jelly candy was an inspiration for Jelly beans but they were actually based on Jordan almonds that are coated in powdered sugar by shaking them about inside a container until their outside becomes hard like our favorite chewy sweets.

The earliest known reference of a Jelly Bean was an 1861 advertisement for William Schrafft of Boston that promoted the sending of jelly beans to soldiers in the Union Army during the Civil War. Jelly Beans were also mentioned in the Chicago Daily News in 1905.

Jelly beans became associated with the Easter holiday in the 1930s, due to their egg-shaped appearance. They grew in popularity from the 1960s through the 1980s, thanks to famous devotees like John Lennon and President Ronald Reagan. But it was really Harry Potter that made them a staple of our lives today; the Jelly Belly company created flavors inspired by the Potter books and films. With over 100 flavors today, Jelly Belly® Jelly Beans were introduced that year only eight flavors: Root Beer, Green Apple, Licorice, Cream Soda, Lemon, Tangerine, Very Cherry, and Grape.

 

Favorite Memes

 

 

My Sometimes-Long-Winded Thoughts

 

More monsoon rain expected soon. Lightning is close. There was a nice, long, male rain last night that lasted a good 45 minutes with lightning only .5 miles away.

Got an email from the HOA this morning that our mail delivery will not resume until Monday. I headed to the Post Office to pick up mail I haven’t had delivered since Tuesday. Being a federal building, it’s masks and 6’ distancing. The line had 7 people in front of me and only one person working. I finally got up and gave her my license and said I live in Christmas Tree Estates, and they just got a new bank of boxes. She smiled and went in the back. Five minutes later she came out with one piece of 1^st class mail, several junk mail, and the free local paper. I said there should be more. She said she had checked ‘both bins’ that had Christmas Tree mail. I asked when they were going to restart delivery. She said she had no idea but would ‘buzz’ the supervisor. There was a guy standing waiting for the supervisor who had been there most of time I was in line. I left. I called the PO when I got home. No one answered. Guess I’ll just be surprised when it finally comes. I’m hoping they don’t lose my CPAP covers that should be delivered this week.

I was reading in today’s paper that over 200 Tokyo athletes from 23 different countries in swimming and track have trained at a local facility before the Olympics. Hypo2 is known for training elite athletes. We are at 7000’ and manicured running trails nearby up to 8500’. They also have a huge pool, not open to the public, for training. Many athletes like the higher altitudes because it builds up red blood cells and helps them when they return to lower altitudes. Very cool.

 

Historical Events

 

1703 Daniel Defoe is placed in a pillory for the crime of seditious libel after publishing a politically satirical pamphlet, but is pelted with flowers

1790 – The United States Patent Office opened

1792 – The cornerstone of the first US Federal Building was laid, the Philadelphia Mint

1948 – Idlewild Field in New York, New York International Airport (later renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport) was dedicated.

1960 Elijah Muhammad, leader of Nation of Islam, calls for a black state

1970 Black Tot Day: the last day of the officially sanctioned rum ration in the Royal Navy (started 1740)

1989 – Game Boy released, video game

1991 – The United States and Soviet Union both sign the START I Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty

2006 Cuba’s leader Fidel Castro handed over power to his brother, Raúl.

2019 Russian President Vladimir Putin orders Russian army to help put out huge wildfires in Siberia covering three million hectares (7.4 million acres) after 700,000 people sign petition

 

Birthdays Today

 

@94 – Milton Friedman, economist, academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2006) @90 – Marion Talbot, influential American educator (d. 1948) @86 – Curt Gowdy, American sportscaster and actor (d. 2006) @83 – Ahmet Ertegun, Turkish-American songwriter, producer, founded Atlantic Records (d. 2006)

@79 – Fred Quimby, American animation producer (d. 1965) 63 – Mark Cuban, American businessman 59 – Wesley Snipes, actor 56 – J. K. Rowling, English author, film producer 55 – Dean Cain, American actor 43 – Zac Brown, American country singer-songwriter