11 Dec

 

11 December 2022

Daily Almanac for Flagstaff
Week 51 Day 345 \ Ave. Sky Cover 5% \ Visibility 10 miles Flagstaff Today 47° \16° 
Wind 5mph \ Gusts s9mph  Air Quality: Fair \ Moderate Risk of fire \ Nearest active fire 331mi \ Nearest Lightning 640qmi
Dec Averages for Flagstaff: 43° \ 17° `
Sunshine

Today’s Quote

Weekly Observations

Andisop (Meteorological Fiddling): 5-24   Link
Computer Science Education Week: 5-11 Link
Human Rights Week: 10-17

Daily Observations

Holiday Food Drive for Needy Animals Day
International Mountain Day
Kaleidoscope Day
Magnum P.I. Day
National App Day  Link
National Have a Bagel Day
National Sobriety Day Link
UNICEF Birthday
Worldwide Candle Lighting Day (The Compassionate Friends) Link 
World Choral Day  Link

My Sometimes-Long-Winded Thoughts

I don’t like shopping on weekends. Today they are forecasting a big snowstorm…5-10” on Sunday/Monday. I decided it was about time the weather guy gets is right. I needed gas before the storm hit. I went to Sam’s for gas, then inside for some cashews. I found other stuff I didn’t know I needed but wanted. Good outcome.

I became a real fan of The Daily Show when Trevor Noah took over about 7 years ago. He is creative, intelligent, and funny. He announced he was leaving about a month ago, and last night was his final show. I wish him well and will miss his brand of comedy.

Favorite Memes

Did you Know?

While the sculptor Gutzon Borglum was working on Mount Rushmore, he had the idea of adding a special room where future generations could learn about the significance of the United States as well as his own creation. The Hall of Records was intended as its own architectural wonder, accented with double doors, a long staircase, and a gold-plated eagle with a 38-foot wingspan. The inside would serve as a museum, housing bronze and glass cabinets full of the country’s key historical documents, busts of important Americans, a list of notable U.S. contributions to the world, and more. Armed with dynamite, miners laid the groundwork for the Hall of Records in 1938 — to the displeasure of Congress, who saw only a 70-foot-deep cave beyond President Lincoln’s hairline. Borglum was instructed to devote his time and federal funding to finishing the quartet of faces. Soon after he died in March 1941, the monument was deemed complete. The Hall of Records remained an empty granite pit for more than half a century.

At the behest of Borglum’s family — who worried that the sculpture’s significance “would become a riddle” to historians — the artist’s vision for the room was partly realized on August 9, 1998. A teak box was filled with 16 porcelain enamel tablets containing documents including the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and the Gettysburg Address, plus details about Borglum and the forging of Mount Rushmore. The box was placed in a non-corrosive titanium container, which was lowered deep into a hole at the Hall of Records’ entrance. To seal the opening, a 1,200-pound granite capstone was added, etched with a quote from Borglum. Alas, tourists are not able to explore the hall that might have been.    

Slang Origins

1932: Layabout

Meaning: a lazy, shiftless person; idler

As the Depression pressed on, unemployment reached unprecedented levels, eventually peaking with nearly a quarter of the population out of work. With more people at home, words like this came into use as Americans waited for the economy to recover.

Corny jokes

3. Why did the golfer bring two pairs of pants?

In case he got a hole in one.

….

4. Why did the Clydesdale give the pony a glass of water?

Because he was a little horse.

Historical Events

1789 – The University of North Carolina was chartered by the North Carolina General Assembly.

1941 – Germany and Italy declared war on the United States.

1946 – UNICEF (United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund) was founded.

2001 – The People’s Republic of China joined the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Birthdays Today

91 – Rita Moreno, Puerto Rican-American actress, singer, dancer
“It is through art that we will prevail, and we will endure. It lives on after us and defines us as people.”– Rita Moreno
@89 – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (d. 2008)
“Let us not forget that violence does not live alone and is not capable of living alone: it is necessarily interwoven with falsehood. Between them lies the most intimate, the deepest of natural bonds. Violence finds its only refuge in falsehood, falsehood its only support in violence. Any man who has once acclaimed violence as his METHOD must inexorably choose falsehood as his PRINCIPLE.”– Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
@86 – David Brewster, Scottish physicist, inventor of the Kaleidoscope
82 – David Gates, American singer-songwriter
82 – Donna Mills, American actress
79 – John Kerry, American politician
78 – Lynda Day George, American actress
78 – Brenda Lee, American singer-songwriter
@76 – John Labatt, Canadian brewer (d. 1915)
@64 – Fiorello La Guardia, New York politician (d. 1947; cancer)
@74 – John Buscema, American comic book artist (d. 2002; cancer)
@76 – Tom Hayden, American politician (d. 2016; heart failure)
73 – Teri Garr, American actress
68 – Jermaine Jackson, American singer-songwriter, Jackson 5
64 – Nikki Sixx (Frank Carlton Serafino Feranna Jr.), American bass player
“I forgive my mom for being a psycho and my dad for being a loser.”– Nikki Sixx
55 – Mo’Nique (Monique Angela Hicks), American comedian
49 – Mos Def, American rapper
26 – Hailee Steinfeld, American actress, singer