1 Feb

 

1 February 2023

Daily Almanac for Flagstaff
Week 5 Day 32 \ Ave. Sky Cover 40% \ Visibility 12 miles Flagstaff Today 40° \11°  Wind 8mph \ Gusts 12mph 
Air Quality: Fair  \Very Low Risk of fire \ Nearest active fire 179mi \ Nearest Lightning 1489mi
Feb. Averages for Flagstaff: 47° \ 19° \5 Days of moisture
High clouds with sunshine

Today’s Quote

Monthly Observations

Adopt A Rescued Rabbit Month Link
African-American Cultural Heritage Month
AMD/Low Vision Awareness Month
American Heart Month
An Affair To Remember Month  Link
‘Atsa’ Biyaazh, which means Baby Eagle In Navajo
Bake for Family Fun Month Link
Barley Month Link
Beat The Heat Month 

Weekly Observations

Thru 2/4
Cordova Ice Worm Days  Link
Catholic Schools Week
Meat Week
National Anesthesiologists Week Link

1-5
US Nationals Snow Sculpting Days
1-7
Women's Heart Week
World Interfaith Harmony Week 

Daily Observations

Candy-Making Day
Car Insurance Day
CBC Day  Link
Change Your Password Day Link
Chinese New Year 2022
Dark Chocolate Day
Decorating With Candy Day
Freedom Day

G.I. Joe Day
Global School Play Day Link 
Hula in The Coola Day
International Brownie Camera Day 2023  Link 
International Day of Black Women in The Arts  
International Face & Body Art Day 
National Candy Making Day
National Get Up Day  (About Perseverance. Not Getting Out Of Bed.)
National Girls & Women in Sports Day
National Signing Day for College Football Link 
Robinson Crusoe Day
Serpent Day Spunky Old Broads Day
World Hijab Day  Link 

My Sometimes-Long-Winded Thoughts

It looks like our late January storm was a bust. It has been raining/snowing on and off, but nothing is sticking. I made a run to Sam’s this morning and roads were only wet. I was able to get a parking space with no problem and only a short walk to the front door.

I am used to huge long icicles from the roof in front of my office window upstairs. Unusual today to see small icicles on a couple of branches on the Blue Spruce outside the window.

Average between January 1991-2022: 28.3 days with snow annually; 90.1” of snow annually. Both these stats have Flagstaff as #1 for the state.

The Super Bowl is coming to Phoenix in February. Business hope to make lots of money. As of today, motel 6 is charging $850/night over the Bowl weekend. Glad I have no reason to be in the Phoenix area that weekend.

African Animals Abound…

Arizona is a great state…

·        Rainfall averages for Arizona range from less than three inches in the deserts to more than 30 inches per year in the mountains.

·        Rising to a height of 12,643 feet, Mount Humphreys north of Flagstaff is the state's highest mountain.

·        Roadrunners are not just in cartoons! In Arizona, you'll see them running up to 17-mph away from their enemies.

·        The Saguaro cactus is the largest cactus found in the U.S. It can grow as high as a five-story building and is native to the Sonoran Desert, which stretches across southern Arizona.

Facts…

The award typically celebrated a young actor’s achievement in the previous year, and in 1939 Garland had starred in two films: Babes in Arms and The Wizard of Oz. At the time she accepted the award, presented by her former classmate and previous Juvenile Oscar recipient Mickey Rooney, she was just a few months shy of her 18th birthday. The award really does look tiny with a teenager holding it — and even tinier next to full-size Academy Awards, like the one her daughter Liza Minnelli won for Cabaret in 1973.

The Juvenile Oscar wasn’t awarded every year, so it took a special situation to warrant the special trophy. Just 12 were awarded in the 26 years it existed; the last one was awarded in 1961 to Hayley Mills, who appeared in Pollyanna the year before. A 16-year-old Patty Duke won a regular Best Supporting Actress award two years later. 

Slang Origins

1980: Chill out

Meaning: calm down; relax

Chill out, or telling someone to "take a chill pill," are said to come from the recognition of ADHD in the early ‘80s, and medication used to alleviate the symptoms. These claims, however, may just be a coincidence.

Mysterious sites…

Göbekli Tepe (Turkey)

Could a set of ruins in southeastern Turkey be remnants of the world’s first temple? That’s one of the key questions archaeologists ponder as they explore Göbleki Tepe, a series of huge stone pillars that are some 6,000 years older than Stonehenge. Now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the landmark was ignored for centuries, dismissed as little more than a cemetery. In the mid-1990s, excavations began and experts soon realized it was a treasure trove of history. The pillars weigh as much as 10 tons each and create massive stone circles. Radar surveys of the area indicate a number of additional circles are still buried underground. Göbleki Tepe is older than writing and older than agriculture. But who were the Neolithic people who built this, and how and why did they do it?

Historical Events

1790 – The United States Supreme Court held its first session.
1898 – Travelers Insurance issued the first automobile accident insurance.
1960 – The Greensboro ‘Sit-In’ took place in North Carolina, protesting discrimination.
1964 – Hasbro introduced the G.I. Joe action figure (retail price: $2.49)
1982 – Late Night with David Letterman premiered on NBC.

Birthdays Today

@85 – Ben Weider, Canadian businessman, co-founded the International Federation of Body Building & Fitness (d. 2008)
“I’ll retire when the Good Lord calls me.”– Ben Weider
86 – Garrett Morris, American actor and comedian
@84 – Don Everly, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d.2021)
@76 – Boris Yeltsin, Russian politician, 1st President of Russia (d. 2007; heart failure)
“Dissidents should be paid 13 months’ salary for a year, otherwise our mindless unanimity will bring us to an even more hopeless state of stagnation. It is especially important to encourage unorthodox thinking when the situation is critical: At such moments every new word and fresh thought is more precious than gold. Indeed, people must not be deprived of the right to think their own thoughts.”– Boris Yeltsin
@77 – Terry Jones, English actor, Monty Python (d. 2020; dementia)
“The Romans did not see (the tale of Romulus, Remus, and the she-wolf) as a charming story; they meant to show that they had imbibed wolfish appetites and ferocity with their mother’s milk.”– Terry Jones
@74 – Sherman Hemsley, American actor and singer (d. 2012; cancer)
@66 – Langston Hughes, American poet and playwright (d. 1967; after surgery)
@65 – Elisabeth Sladen, English actress (d. 2011; cancer)
@59 – Clark Gable, American actor (d. 1960; heart attack)
“I’m just a lucky slob from Ohio who happened to be in the right place at the right time.”– Clark Gable
@56 – Rick James, American singer-songwriter and producer (d. 2004; heart failure)
“I can’t hang out as loose as I used to, but I can still go down Jefferson Avenue and look in the faces of winos, pimps and junkies, all the things I’m made of.”– Rick James
55 – Pauly Shore, American comedian and actor
@54 – Lisa Marie Presley, American singer-songwriter, actress (d. 2023)
52 – Michael C. Hall, American actor
@36 – Jessica Savitch, American journalist (d. 1983; car accident/drowning)
35 – Rhonda Rousey, American fighter athlete
@28 – Brandon Lee, American actor and martial artist (d. 1993; shot of film set)
29 – Harry Styles, English singer-songwriter

 
 

31 Jan

 

31 January 2023

Daily Almanac for Flagstaff
Week 5 Day 31 \ Ave. Sky Cover 60% \ Visibility 7 miles Flagstaff Today 45° \23°  Wind 4mph \ Gusts 8mph 
Air Quality: Fair \Very Low Risk of fire \ Nearest active fire 546mi \ Nearest Lightning 777mi
Jan Averages for Flagstaff: 44° \ 16° \5 Days of moisture
Partly Sunny; occasional rain/snow

Today’s Quote

 

Weekly Observations

28—2/4
Cordova Ice Worm Days  Link
Catholic Schools Week
Meat Week
National Anesthesiologists Week Link

Daily Observations

Backwards Day
Brandy Alexander Day
Eat Brussels Sprouts Day
Inspire your Heart with Art Day
National Hot Chocolate Day
A.F.R.M.A. Fancy Rat & Mouse Day
Appreciate Your Social Security Check Day
Inspire Your Heart with Art Day
National Plan For A Vacation Day  Link  
Street Children Day Link  Link

My Sometimes-Long-Winded Thoughts

So far the storm has brought us some rain, but no snow.

Florida has set up a new committee to review every book that is in every school library and classroom library and determine if the books are appropriate the children. If a book doesn’t meet their criteria, there could be felony charges. Teachers, Librarians, and school administrators are fighting against the law, but encouraging teachers and library personnel to remove any potentially banned books from their shelves. This is insanity.

This morning my phone had an alert: A local middle school had a student stabbed with a knife by another student. The student is in custody and parents involved have been notified.  

The super bowl will be in Phoenix with the Eagles playing the Chiefs. I’ll be watching it from the comfort of my living room.

Here is some more on the Memphis Scorpion Unit: It stands for Street Crimes Operation To Restore Peace In Our Neighborhoods. It had 40 officers split into 4 teams who patrolled ‘high crime hotspots’ throughout the city.  After the killing of a nonviolent young man, the unit has been disbanded.

African Animals Abound…

z

Arizona is a great state…

·        Built by Del Webb in 1960, Sun City, Arizona was the first 55-plus active adult retirement community in the country.

·        Petrified wood is the official state fossil. The Petrified Forest in northeastern Arizona contains America's largest deposits of petrified wood.

·        Many of the founders of San Francisco in 1776 were Spanish colonists from Tubac, Arizona.

·        Phoenix originated in 1866 as a hay camp to supply military post Camp McDowell.

Facts…

Judy Garland rose to superstardom with her doe-eyed look, but in her days at MGM, she was considered, however unfairly, a kind of ugly duckling compared to the more willowy starlets in the MGM stable. In her earlier years, when the priority was preserving her childlike look, she carried rubber discs in a small carrying case, along with caps for her teeth. She’d insert the discs in her nose to give it a more upturned look. Because the studio wanted to keep her looking as young as possible, her breasts were also often bound.

Once she was a little older and starring in less-childlike roles, such as Esther Smith in Meet Me in St. Louis, she started wearing a canvas and metal corset that required two people on either side to pull the strings tight. (It’s a wonder she was still able to sing.)

While she was nominated a few times, Garland’s only Academy Award came in 1940, and it was actually a miniature version of the iconic statuette. Garland was one of just a handful of people to win the special award known as the “Juvenile Oscar,” first awarded to six-year-old Shirley Temple in 1935. 

Slang Origins

1979: Catch you on the flip side

Meaning: see you later, see you tomorrow

In the age of smartphones and music streaming, the origins of this idiom may soon become entirely obsolete. The “flip side” refers to the B sides of records, which played the songs record companies didn’t think would sell as well. It was popularized by truckers’ radio lingo in the ‘70s before filtering to a wider audience.

Mysterious sites…

Hagar Qim (Malta)

 Credit: Creative Credit/ iStock

Located on the Mediterranean island of Malta, the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Hagar Qim is one of seven prehistoric temples in Malta and is believed to date to between 3800 BCE and 2200 BCE. The site’s name translates to “standing stones,” and one of the largest weighs in at more than 20 tons, measuring nearly 23 feet in height. The site was first excavated in 1839 and consists of a series of rooms lined by these megaliths. Parts of the chamber align with the sunrise and sunset of the summer solstice. This and the other temples on the island all appear to have been built in the same period, which has left archaeologists puzzled — there is little evidence of any civilization capable of such building feats on the islands at that time.

Historical Events

1940 – Ida May Fuller received the first Social Security retirement check, in the amount of $22.54. She lived to 100 years old and collected a total of $22,888.

Birthdays Today

@97 – Carol Channing, American entertainer (d. 2019)
@85 – Norman Mailer, American journalist, author (d. 2007)
We live in a time which has created the art of the absurd. It is our art. It contains happenings, Pop art, camp, a theater of the absurd … Do we have the art because the absurd is the patina of waste…? Or are we face to face with a desperate or most rational effort from the deepest resources of the unconscious of us all to rescue civilization from the pit and plague of its bedding?– Norman Mailer
@78 – Garry Moore [Thomas Garrison Morfit], comedian, game host (d. 1993; throat cancer)
76 – Nolan Ryan, American baseball player
Enjoying success requires the ability to adapt. Only by being open to change will you have a true opportunity to get the most from your talent.– Nolan Ryan
@72 – Eddie Cantor, American singer-songwriter and actor (d. 1964; heart attack)
@70 – Suzanne Pleshette, American actress (d. 2008; lung cancer)
@67 – Zane Grey, American author (d. 1939)
To bear up under loss- to fight the bitterness of defeat and the weakness of grief- to be victor over anger- to smile when tears are close- to resist evil men and base instincts- to hate hate and to love love- to go on when it would seem good to die- to seek ever after the glory and the dream- to look up with unquenchable faith in something evermore about to be- that is what any man can do, and so be great.– Zane Grey
67 – Johnny Rotten (John Joseph Lydon), English singer-songwriter
There’s nothing glorious in dying. Anyone can do it.– Johnny Rotten (John Lydon)
@66 – Tallulah Bankhead, American actress (d. 1968; pneumonia)
59 – Martha MacCallum, American journalist
@53 – Jackie Robinson, Baseball (d. 1972; heart attack)
53 – Minnie Driver, English actress
50 – Portia de Rossi, Australian-American actress
46 – Kerry Washington, American actress
42 – Justin Timberlake, American singer-songwriter, dancer, and actor
You’re not meant to do what’s easy, you’re meant to challenge yourself.– Justin Timberlake
@38 – Mario Lanza, American tenor, and actor (d. 1959; embolism)
36 – Marcus Mumford, American-English singer-songwriter
@31 – Franz Schubert, Austrian pianist, and composer (d. 1828; typhoid)