May 25

 

 
Daily Almanac for Flagstaff
Week 22 Day: 145 \ Ave. sky cover: 5% \ Visibility: 10 miles Flagstaff Today 68° \35° 
Wind: 9mph \ Gusts: 15mph
Extreme risk of fire \ Nearest active fire: 10mi \ nearest Lightning: 321mi
May Averages for Flagstaff: 68° \ 34°  (3 days of moisture)

 

Today’s Quote

Weekly Observations

17-28 Cannes Film Festival

22-28   National Backyard Games Week National Safe Boating Week World Schizophrenia Awareness Week  Link Healthy and Safe Swimming Week Link

23-6/5   National Seat Belt Reinforcement Week Link

23-27  Undergraduate Research Week: Link

24-29 Mule Days  Link

25-30 Fleet Week

25-31 Week of Solidarity With The People of Non-Self-Governing Territories

Daily Observations

My Sometimes-Long-Winded Thoughts

A little cooler today…all good.

Our area has moved into Stage 2 Fire Restrictions. That means no fireworks, no permits for open burning, no open pit fires, and no charcoal or wood fired BBQ. Propane BBQs are still permitted if there is an on/off switch. It seems restrictions are one thing while enforcement and penalties are entirely different. I just want compliance. While I was writing this, a fire in the forest just barely west of Flagstaff city limits. 

I read an interesting tidbit…the mortar used in building the Great Wall of China included mashed up sticky rice. Scientists say this is one of the reasons the Great Wall, partially built during the Ming Dynasty [1368-1644] is still standing. I was fortunate to be able to walk on parts of the Wall during my Focus trip to China. I have pictures to prove it.

Another school shooting. This time, in Texas, 14 children and 1 teacher killed. The 18-year-old suspect also died. So tragic.

Favorite Memes

 

Humor

Why should you never trust stairs?

They’re always up to something.

Trivia

v The imperial family of Japan descends from an unbroken lineage of nearly 2,000 years. No other royal family in history has held its position for so long. The first Japanese emperor, Jimmu Tenno, ruled about the time of Christ.

v Home to 33 million people, the Tokyo-Yokohama metropolitan area is the largest populated metropolitan region in the world.

v Twenty-one percent of the Japanese population is elderly (over the age of 65), the highest proportion in the world. There are more elderly than there are children in Japan today.

Historical Events

Ø   240 BC – First recorded perihelion passage of Halley’s Comet. It will next appear in mid-2061.
Ø   1878 – Gilbert and Sullivan’s comic opera H.M.S. Pinafore opened at the Opera Comique in London.
Ø   1925 – John T. Scopes was indicted for teaching human evolution in Tennessee.
Ø   1935 – At Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Babe Ruth hit his 714th (and final) home run.
Ø   1968 – The Saint Louis Gateway Arch was dedicated.
Ø   1977 – Chinese government removed the ban on the works of William Shakespeare, the biggest entertainment juggernaut in the Elizabethan era.
Ø   1977 – Star Wars (now Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope) opened Memorial Day weekend, marking the biggest entertainment juggernaut in modern popular culture, now second only to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Ø   1986 – Hands Across America took place.
Ø   1994 – George Swanson was buried in Brush Creek Cemetery, in the driver’s seat of his 1984 white Corvette in Hempfield County, Pennsylvania.
Ø   2011- Oprah Winfrey hosted the final episode of her syndicated daytime show.
Ø   2018 – The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) became enforceable in the European Union.

Birthdays Today

83 – Ian McKellen, actor

79 – Leslie Uggams, American actress, singer

@78 – Ralph Waldo Emerson, American poet and philosopher (d. 1882)

@78 – Beverly Sills, American soprano and actress (d. 2007; lung cancer)

77 – Frank Oz, English-born American puppeteer, filmmaker, actor

59 – Mike Meyers, American actor

53 – Anne Heche, American actress

52 – Jamie Kennedy, American actor, producer, screenwriter

46 – Cillian Murphy, actor

28 – Aly Raisman, American gymnast