Sep 25, 2012

FYI: Click on any blue text for a link to more information!

Flagstaff Almanac…  

Week: 39/ Day 269:   Today: High  73 °…Low 43°

Records: High   85°(1947)…Low 25°(1918)

Averages: High  70°…Low 39°

Wind: average:   4mph;  Gusts:  30mph

Today’s average humidity:  42%

Quote of the Day…

Today’s  Historical  Highlights…

1988 - Florence Griffith Joyner runs Olympic record 100m in 10.54s

1962 - Sonny Liston KOs Floyd Patterson in 1st round for heavyweight title

1954 - Francois "Doc" Duvalier wins Haitian presidential election

1933 - 1st state poorhouse opens in Smyrna, Georgia

1926 - Henry Ford announces 8 hour, 5-day work week

1897 - 1st British bus service opens

1861 - Secretary of US Navy authorizes enlistment of slaves

1789 - Congress proposes Bill of Rights (10 of 12 will ratify)

♪   Happy Birthday To: ♪.. 

How many can you identify?…answers in Today’s Birthdays

Free Rambling Thoughts…   

A day of clear sky and cloudy sky and clear sky. A day of a couple of light rains. A day of some gusty wind to bring in the rain. Most of the day was nice weather, but the rains put a damper on much outside activity. Libya seems to have opened up more problems. The good news is the Libyan people and government are now searching out the militants that killed our ambassador and three other Americans. The bad news is that our government was not listening to the civilian Americans, including the Ambassador that this attack was coming. CNN, a news organization walked around the consulate after the attack and found the Ambassador’s personal diary. They read it, reported the newsworthy items, and returned it to the family. Our government is saying they should have returned it to them and should not have reported its information. Sounds to me like a bunch of bureaucrats, including the FBI, dropped the ball big time. Also sounds like bureaucrats are pointing fingers at CNN to draw attention away from their failures. It’s time to figure out what went wrong and take action to prevent future events of this magnitude.

Game  Center: (answers at the end of post)

What is the rhyming answer?

Answer the following clue in two rhyming words (e.g. an obese feline is a fat cat) If only one number is given, the answer is a word featuring internal rhyme (e.g. voodoo)

Deliberately avoid daylight (4,3)

Rebus…

Can you figure out what this means?

Lifestyle  Substance…     

Do you remember this?

Read This Headline Carefully!!

Something Went Wrong in Jet Crash, Experts Say

Gorilla:

Great Melodies…:

Dawn from Thus Spake Zarathustra…Richard Strauss
Inspired by Nietzsche’s treatise of the same name, Strauss wrote this tone poem in 1896, and it is in 9 parts. Almost no one is familiar with more than the first part, “Dawn” or “Sunrise.” It is world famous because of Stanley Kubrick’s sci-fi classic, 2001: A Space Odyssey. Elvis Presley also used it to open his concerts. It has been used in films, film trailers, and parodied so many times that even Ray Stevens, the country-comedy songwriter, used it once, with chickens “buck buck buck-AWing” the opening chords.

Harper’s Index…         

Amount the average worker spends annually on coffee: $1,092 ($2.90/day)

Unusal Fact of the Day…

The Halifax, Nova Scotia explosion which killed 2,000 people occurred on December 6^th, 1917, and was the largest man-made explosion until the first atomic bomb was dropped in 1945—a ship of explosives.

Found on You Tube… 

• Shel Silverstein on "The Johnny Cash Show"

• The Actual '73 Giving Tree Movie Spoken By Shel Silverstein

Joke-of-the-day…

A man is recovering from surgery when the Surgical Nurse appears and asks him how he is feeling.
"I'm O. K. but I didn't like the four letter-words the doctor used in surgery," he answered.
"What did he say," asked the nurse.
"Oops!"  

Rules of Thumb…   

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess

BUILDING A DOCK…Figure $20 a square foot per deck space plus $750 per piling when building a dock.    

Yeah, It Really Happened…

Everett, Washington - 44-year-old Renee Bishop-McKean is accused of trying to decapitate her sleeping husband with an electric saw in a bizarre revenge plot.
The couple had been living apart but jurors were told the woman invited her husband over and told him to sleep on a mattress that she had wrapped in plastic. That should have been his first hint that something wasn't exactly right.
In the middle of the night the woman attacked her husband with the saw, but the noise woke the victim and he was able to fight her off. But she wasn't finished. Upon realizing the saw wasn't going to work she then attacked him with a hatchet and mallet, striking him on the head.
But she was still unable to kill him.
Bishop-McKean told police an attacker must have entered the home through an open window, found the saw and attacked her husband, however Deputy Prosecutor Paul Stern noted the window was locked. He called the woman's theory the "Tinkerbell did this" defense. Police found evidence that Bishop-McKean had purchased the saw, hatchet and mallet shortly before the attack and stock-piled bleach and a supply of large garbage bags. Jurors needed less than three hours to find her guilty of first-degree assault and attempted murder.  

Somewhat Useless Information…   

• In 1944, the H.W. Lay Company became one of the first snack food makers to advertise on television, with a cartoon character called Oscar, the Happy Potato. It was never explained how Oscar was happy to be sliced wafer-thin and deep-fried in a vat of boiling oil. 

• Sweet potatoes aren't potatoes at all, but vine roots. They're also unrelated to yams.

• After 35 years of puffing, Mr. Potato Head officially gave up his pipe in 1987 in conjunction with the American Cancer Society's Great American Smokeout.

• Ore-Ida, the leading potato processor in the United States, is named for the Oregon/Idaho border, where most potatoes are grown. The company made a miscue in 2002 when they attempted to lure kids with colored Funky Kool French fries to match the colorful ketchup being produced by Heinz.

• NBA star Anthony "Spud" Webb got his nickname because it was short for Sputnik, a nickname his grandmother had given him as a child.

• To further distance themselves from other brands, Pringles began officially referring to its product as "potato crisps" in 1991.  

Calendar Information…        

Happening This Week:

22-29: Banned Books Week / National Dog Week / National Keep Kids Creative Week / Remember to Register to Vote Week / International Women's E-Commerce Days

Today Is…                                                                      

Gold Star Mother's Day [for those who lost a son or daughter in war]
Math Story Telling Day
National Comic Book Day
National One-Hit Wonder Day
National Voter Registration Day
National Woman Road Warrior Day [to honor and recognize the nation's      traveling businesswomen](World) Ataxia Awareness Day [ lack of voluntary coordination of muscle       movements]~Rwanda: Republic Day (1961 abolition of monarchy)

Today’s Events Through History…  

2000’s

2008 - China launches the spacecraft Shenzhou 7

1900’s

1990 - Saddam Hussein warns that US will repeat Vietnam experience

1973 - 3-man crew of Skylab 3 make safe splashdown in Pacific after 59 days

1956 - 1st transatlantic telephone cable goes into operation (Scot-Canada)

1956 - Transatlantic telephone cable (Newfoundland-Oban) is used

1934 - Lou Gehrig plays in his 1,500th consecutive game

1926 - NHL grants franchises to Chicago Black Hawks & Detroit Red Wings

1919 - President Woodrow Wilson is paralyzed by a stroke

1912 - Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism is founded in New York

1906 - In the presence of the king and before a great crowd, Leonardo Torres 

            Quevedo successfully demonstrates the invention of the Telekino in the port 

            of Bilbao, guiding a boat from the shore, in what is considered the birth of 

            the Remote control

1800’s

 1890 - Congress establishes Yosemite National Park (California)

1866 - (Leonard W) Jerome Park opens in Bronx for horse racing

1829 - Failed assassination attempt on Simon Bolívar

1700’s

1793 - Near Knoxville, Tennessee, a group of around 300 Chickamaugas, including 

           Captain Bench, Doublehead and John Watts, attack Alexander Cavett's fort. 

           Cavett, and three other men are guarding ten women and children. After a few 

           Chickamaugas are killed, John Watts calls for a parley. He promises not to kill 

           the settlers, if they surrender. Finding their situation hopeless, the settlers give 

           up and open the fort. Against the wishes of Bench and Watts, Doublehead kills 

           all of the settlers except one boy saved by Watts. The boy meets his own death

           a few days later by another angry Indian.

1780 - Benedict Arnold joins the British

1714 - The five Iroquois Nations send the Governor of New York, a letter. They tell 

             the Governor, that the Tuscaroras join the Iroquois Confederacy. Long ago, 

             they had moved away. Now, they return.

1600’s

1639 - 1st printing press in America

1500’s

1513 - Vasco Nunez de Balboa is 1st European to see Pacific Ocean

1400’s

1493 - Columbus sails with 17 ships on 2nd voyage to America

Before 1000CE

303 - On a voyage preaching the gospel, Saint Fermin of Pamplona is beheaded 

          in Amiens, France

Today’s Birthdays…                                                           

In their 40’s

Scottie Pippen, Hamburg Ak, basket forward (Bulls, Oly-2 gold-92, 96) is 47

Will Smith [The Fresh Prince], actor/rapper (Men in Black, Independence Day) 

     will be 44

In their 50’s

 Heather Locklear, actress (Stacy-T J Hooker, Sammy Jo-Dynasty)   will be 51

In their 60’s

Michael Douglas, actor (Coma, Wall St, Jewel of the Nile) will be 68

Robert Gates, American Secretary of Defense is 69

Cheryl Tiegs, Minnesota, model (Sports Illustrated) is 65

Anson Williams, LA California, actor (Potsie-Happy Days) is 63

In their 80’s

 Barbara Walters, journalist, talk show host will be 83

Remembered for being born today

William Faulkner, New Albany Mississippi, author (Sound & Fury-Nobel 1949) b. 1897

Christopher Reeve, NYC, actor (Superman, Somewhere in Time)  b. 1952

Ethel Rosenberg, American Communist b. 1915

Lope K. Santos, Filipino writer and labor leader, Father of the Philippine National Language and Grammar b. 1879

Shel Silverstein, American humorist and author b. 1930

Today’s Historical Obits…                                                           

Don Adams, American actor and comedian—2005—at 82 

Mary Astor, actress (Cynthia, Meet Me in St Louis, Fiesta)—1987--at 81

Bob Considine, newscaster (Tonight! America After Dark)—stroke—1975--at 68

Wangari Maathai, Kenyan environmentalist, Nobel Peace Prize--ovarian cancer

      —2011-- at 71

Walter Pidgeon, actor (Forbidden Planet, Mrs Miniver)—1984—at 87

George Plimpton, American writer and actor—heart attack—2003—at 76

Coco the Clown, [Nikolai Poliakov]—1974—at 74

John B Watson, US psychologist/behaviorist—1958—at 80

Answers…                                                                                                                                            

What is the rhyming answer?

Shun sun

Rebus

To see red

Disclaimer: All opinions are mine…feel free to agree or disagree.

All ‘data’ info is from the internet sites and is usually checked with at least one other source, but I have learned that every site has mistakes and sadly once out the information is out there, many sites simply copy it and is therefore difficult to verify. Also for events occurring before the Gregorian calendar was adopted [1582] the dates may not be totally accurate.

§    And That Is All for Now  §

Sep 24. 2012

FYI: Click on any blue text for a link to more information!

Flagstaff Almanac…  

Week: 39/ Day 268 :   Today: High   77°…Low 45°

Records: High   86°(1945)…Low 25°(1940)

Averages: High  71°…Low 39°

Wind: average:   3mph;  Gusts:  25mph

Today’s average humidity:  40%

Quote of the Day…

Today’s  Historical  Highlights…

1968 - "60 Minutes" premieres on CBS-TV

1955 - Pres Eisenhower suffers a heart attack on vacation in Denver

1934 - 2500 fans see Babe Ruth's farewell Yankee appearance at Yankee Stadium

1895 - 1st round-the-world trip by a woman on a bicycle (took 15 months)

1841 - Britain obtains Sarawak from Brunei (James Brooke appointed Rajah)

1789 - Congress creates Post Office

1625 - Dutch attack San Juan, Puerto Rico

♪   Happy Birthday To: ♪.. 

How many can you identify?…answers in Today’s Birthdays

Free Rambling Thoughts…   

Angio-edema is a pain in the butt. Last night about 9pm my tongue started swelling. I popped my pill and went to bed about 10:30. Got up at midnight and took a second pill. Finally got some sleep starting at 4am. Swelling was down when I got up at 7am. But all day I’ve been tired and not feeling like doing much of anything. A good night’s sleep tonight and I’ll be back to normal. I did watch all my Sunday news programs and feel better informed, not happy, just better informed. Salman Rushdie is making the rounds plugging his new book, about his life after the publication of his first book. He sure has some interesting perspectives. Guess I’ll watch the Emmy’s tonight…too lazy for anything that requires thinking.

Game  Center: (answers at the end of post)

What is the rhyming answer?

Answer the following clue in two rhyming words (e.g. an obese feline is a fat cat) If only one number is given, the answer is a word featuring internal rhyme (e.g. voodoo)

hag's space (5,5)

Rebus…

Can you figure out what this means?

Lifestyle  Substance…     

Do you remember this?

Read This Headline Carefully!!

Smokers are Productive, but Death Cuts Efficiency

Gorilla:

Great Melodies…:

Minuet in G Major…Christian Petzold

Everyone thought for centuries that Johann Sebastian Bach composed this minuet for his wife, Anna Magdalena, but he actually included it from Petzold into the notebook which bears her name. He never intended it to be thought of as his work. He intended the notebooks only for his wife, who had musical talent he wanted to cultivate. She often copied his scores for his orchestras. The pieces in the notebooks are comparatively easy to play, and the only reason we think of the piece as Bach’s work is because, on his death, his wife was so poor she sold all his manuscripts that she could find. Some went to butchers to wrap meat.

Harper’s Index…         

Estimated percentage of orders submitted by high-frequency stock traders that are cancelled: 95

Unusal Fact of the Day…

The Harlem Globetrotters were originally a Chicago based team (1927). They did not play a ‘home’ game in Harlem until the 1968.

Found on You Tube… 

Dr Seuss: Rhymes and Reasons

Joke-of-the-day…

There were 3 men who were working on a bridge. One of the worker's name was John, the other one's name was Randall, and the last one's name was Joe. So one day when the 3 men were taking a lunch break, they all opened up their lunch box and saw what their wives had gave them for lunch. When John opened his lunch, he saw that he had peanut butter and jelly, so then he said, "If my wife gives me the same lunch tomorrow, I'm going to jump off this bridge. Then Randall opened his lunch and saw that he had spaghetti and meatballs. So then he also said the same thing as what John said. Then when Joe opened his lunch he saw that he was having a chicken salad. So then he said that he too was going to jump off the bridge if he got the same lunch the next day. So the next day, all 3 men had the same lunch from yesterday and they all jumped off. A week later when the funeral was scheduled, John's wife said, "If my sweetie- pie told me he wanted a new lunch, he should have told me!” then Randalls wife said "Why did he do it? Why??” then Joe's wife said, "Why did he jump off the bridge? He packed his own lunch!"

Rules of Thumb…   

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess

TOM TAYLOR'S RULE FOR SUCCESSFUL DISSERTATIONS #1…Select a topic on which there is little related literature.   

Yeah, It Really Happened…

TORONTO - A legal squabble has resulted in a Canadian debt collection agency making demands on a competitor to pay its lawyers' fees. The unusual situation -- in which a collection agency pursued another -- began in 2010 when one of Canada's largest debt-chasers, iQor Canada, contracted with a Toronto legal firm to help with wrongful dismissal issues, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp, reported. The law firm billed iQor almost $55,000 for its services, but it wasn't paid, the report said. The lawyers then enlisted rival Credit Control Central, which began making phone calls and sending letters to its competitor to collect. In May 2011, iQor paid $50,677 of its legal bill, short by $4,374, the report said. In turn, the legal firm went to small claims court to get the difference and won. Credit Control Central President Don Vence told the CBC the situation was peculiar for the debt-chasing business. "It's a dichotomy to have a company calling other companies for money, or individuals asking them to live up to their financial commitments when they themselves don't," he said.

Somewhat Useless Information…   

• Martin Van Buren was the eighth vice president (1833-1837), serving under President Andrew Jackson. Van Buren helped to organize the Democratic Party. His first language was not English but Dutch. He was believed to wear corsets. He was elected to the presidency in 1836.

• Richard Mentor Johnson was the ninth vice president (1837-1841), serving under President Martin Van Buren. Although Van Buren won the Electoral College vote, Johnson came up short when Virginia’s electors refused to cast their ballots for him. For the first and only time, the US Senate had to decide the vice presidential contest, picking Johnson on a party-line vote.

• John Tyler was the 10th vice president (1841), serving less than a month under President William Henry Harrison. When Harrison died of pneumonia, Tyler became the first vice president to become president after the incumbent’s death. His popular nickname was "His Accidency." He believed in states’ rights and ended his career serving in the Confederate Congress.

Calendar Information…        

Happening This Week:

22-29: Banned Books Week / National Dog Week / National Keep Kids Creative Week / Remember to Register to Vote Week / International Women's E-Commerce Days

Today Is…                                                                      

Family Day - A Day to Eat Dinner with Your Kids
Festival of Latest Novelties
Family Health and Fitness DayPunctuation Day
R.E.A.D. in America DaySchwenkfelder Thanksgiving [1734 Pennsylvania Dutch]~Cambodia: Constitutional Declaration Day (1993)~South Africa: Heritage Day
~Guinea-Bissau: Independence Day (1973 from Portugal) 

Today’s Events Through History…  

2000’s

2007 - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gives a controversial speech 

            on the campus of Columbia University

1900’s

1997 - Drug kingpin Ramon Arellano Felix placed on FBI's 10 most-wanted

1988 - Jackie Joyner-Kersee of USA sets heptathlon woman's record (7,291)

1988 - Carl Lewis runs world record 100m (9.92 sec)

1979 - CompuServe began operation as 1st computer information service

1977 - 1st broadcast of "Love Boat" on ABC-TV

1969 - Trial of "Chicago 8" (protesters at Dem Natl Conv) begins

1957 - Eisenhower orders US troops to desegregate Little Rock schools

1954 - Tonight Show premieres on NBC 

1924 - Boston, Massachusetts opens its airport

1800’s

 1881 - Henry Morton Stanley signs contract with Congo monarch

1853 - 1st round-the-world trip by yacht (Cornelius Vanderbilt)

1819 - Lewis Cass negotiates a treaty (7 stat. 203) for the United States with the 

            Chippewa. For $1000 a year, the services of a blacksmith, and provisions, 

            the Chippewa give up a large section of land. The treaty is signed in Saginaw, 

            Michigan.

1700’s

1789 - US Attorney General Office is created

1789 - President George Washington appointed John Jay the 1st Chief Justice

1600’s

1683 - King Louis XIV expels all Jews from French possessions in America

1657 - 1st autopsy & coroner's jury verdict is recorded in state of Maryland

Before 1000CE

787 - 2nd Council of Nicaea (7th ecumenical council) opens in Asia Minor

673 - Synod of Hertford opens; canons made for English Church

Today’s Birthdays…                                                           

In their 30’s

Morgan Hamm, American gymnast is 30
Paul Hamm, American gymnast is 30

In their 50’s

 Kevin Sorbo, actor (Hercules Legendary Journeys, Kull The Conquerer) is 54

In their 60’s

 "Mean" Joe Greene, NFL tackle (Pittsburgh Steelers), Coke spokesman is 66

Remembered for being born today

Konstantin Chernenko, USSR leader fifth General Secretary of the Communist 

     Party b. 1911

F Scott Fitzgerald, St Paul Minn, author (Great Gatsby) b. 1896

Jim Henson, Greenville Miss, muppeteer (Sesame Street, Muppet Show) b. 1936

Ruhollah Khomeini, Iranian politician, religious figure, and political leader 

      of the 1979 Iranian Revolution b. 1902

John Marshall, Va, 4th Supreme Court Chief Justice b. 1755

Linda Eastman McCartney, NYC, Mrs Paul McCartney, rocker (Wings-Ram) b. 1941

Jim McKay, Phila Pa, sportscaster (ABC's Wide World of Sports) b. 1921

Don Porter, Miami Oklahoma, actor (Russ Lawrence-Gidget, Ann Sothern 

      Show) b. 1921

Today’s Historical Obits…                                                           

Theodore Geisel, children's author (Dr Seuss)—cancer--1991--at 87

Clive Morton, actor (Goodbye Mr Chips, Moonraker)—1975-- at 71

Sumner Welles, US diplomat (Good Neighbor Policy)—1961--at 68

Answers…                                                                                                                                            

What is the rhyming answer?

Witch niche

Rebus

 Show till you drop

Disclaimer: All opinions are mine…feel free to agree or disagree.

All ‘data’ info is from the internet sites and is usually checked with at least one other source, but I have learned that every site has mistakes and sadly once out the information is out there, many sites simply copy it and is therefore difficult to verify. Also for events occurring before the Gregorian calendar was adopted [1582] the dates may not be totally accurate.

§    And That Is All for Now  §