12/14/13


FYI: Any blue text is a link. Click to check it out!
Flagstaff Almanac:
Week: 50 / Day: 348   
Today: L 16°…H 44°… Ave. humidity: 60%
Wind: ave:   8mph; Gusts:  23mph  
Average Low: 16° Record Low:  -14° (1972)
Average High: 44° Record High:  66° (1946)

Quote of the Day


Today’s Historical Highlights
1st chamber music group in US gives their 1st concert (Boston)…1849
28 people, including 20 children, are shot to death at Sandy Hook Elementary School…2012
Artificial pearls 1st manufactured by M Jacquin in Paris…1656
Congress establishes rank of General of Army (5-star General)…1944
DNA created in a test tube…1967
Jack Johnson is 1st black world heavyweight boxing champion…1915
Jackson Five made their 1st appearance on "Ed Sullivan Show"…1969
Jimmy Dean's "Big Bad John" is 1st country song to get a gold record…1961
Mary Stuart becomes Queen Mary I of Scotland at 6 days old…1542
National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) is founded…1947 
President Bush made his 4th and final trip to Iraq /almost struck by two shoes 
     thrown at him…2008
South Pole 1st reached, by Norwegian Roald Amundsen…1911
Winston Churchill travels to US on board HMS Duke of York…1941
Zuider Zee seawall collapses with loss of 50,000 lives…1287

♫  Today’s Birthdays: ♫   
How many can you identify? Answers in Today’s Birthdays
 
My Free Rambling Thoughts   
A nice Friday…not too chilly, not too windy. Our retirement group met for lunch. One of our favorite places was very busy…even at 11:30. We left about 12:30 as there was a line of people waiting for tables. All of us are busy getting ready for our Christmases. Cheryl is headed to California while Mary will be headed to Phoenix. Cheryl is finished with her shopping…but Mary and I both have some stuff to do. We’ll meet early next week for our gift exchange and our favorite bistro here in Flagstaff.
 
The latest school shooting was in Colorado…again. This one was on the same side of town I grew up in, but in a different district. It has about 2K students, about the same size as my high school. Listening to people on CNN, we all say ‘’not at my school.” Just as the Sandy Hook community is coming up to the one year anniversary of their horror, it happens again. Such a horrible event to have to keep reliving in this country. Amazing how cell phones have played such an important role for the police and especially for the parents in these situations.
 
Today is my sister-in-laws birthday. I’m sure she will have a great time. Wish I could be there with her.

Game  Center (answers at the end of post)
Brain Teasers
Some people's names (such as "Will Power") suggest a certain personality or career choice. Given below are some last names and professions (in no particular order). For each last name, your task is to think of a common first name, such that it suggests one of the given professions. Each last name and profession must be used just once. Example: Sonny Day would suggest a meteorologist.
Last Names: Ding, Flay, King, Lynn, Payne, Peace Professions: Musician, Author, Chef, Comedian, Architect, Politician
Lifestyle  Substance:     
Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

Very Strange Laws…Indiana
  • “Spiteful Gossip” and “talking behind a person’s back” are illegal.
  • A person must get a referral from a licensed physician if he or she wishes to see a hypnotist unless the desired procedure is to quit smoking or lose weight.
  • A three dollar fine per pack will be imposed on anyone playing cards in Indiana under the Act for the Prevention of Gaming.
  • Anyone 14 or older who profanely curses, damns or swears by the name of God, Jesus Christ or the Holy Ghost, shall be fined one to three dollars for each offense, with a maximum fine of ten dollars per day.
  • Drinking from your own bottle in a bar can lead to your arrest. You are required to pour your drink into a glass.
  • Drinks on the house are illegal.
  • Grocery stores may not sell any type of cold liquor.
  • Hotel sheets must be exactly 99 inches long and 81 inches wide.
  • If any person has a puppet show, wire dancing or tumbling act in the state of Indiana and receives money for it, they will be fined $3 under the Act to Prevent Certain Immoral Practices.
  • It is illegal for a liquor store to sell cold soft drinks.
  • It is illegal for a man to be sexually aroused in public.
  • Liquor stores may not sell milk.
  • One man may not back into a parking spot becasue it prevents police officers from seeing the license plate.
  • One may not sniff glue.
  • Smoking in the state legislature building is banned, except when the legislature is in session.
  • State government officials who engage in private duels can be dismissed from their post.
  • The value of Pi is 3.
  • Waitresses may not carry drinks into a restaurant or bar.
  • You can get out of paying for a dependent’s medical care by praying for him/her.
  • Beech Grove--
    • It is forbidden to eat watermelon in the park.
  • Elkhart--
    • It is illegal for barbers to threaten to cut off kid’s ears.
  • Evansville--
    • While driving on Main Street you may not have yourlights on.
  • Fort Wayne--
    • You may not sell or play on a radio broadcast, the record “It`s In the Book”
  • Gary--
    • Within four hours of eating garlic, a person may not enter a movie house, theater, or ride a public streetcar.
  • Indianapolis--
    • Hopefully, residents of the city have spedometers on their horses, for they can not ride them in excess of ten miles per hour. \ One may only throw a stone at a bird in self-defense. \ No person may collect rags on Sunday.
  • South Bend--
    • It is illegal to make a monkey smoke a cigarette.
  • Terre Haute--
    • No one may spit on the sidewalk.
  • Warsaw--
    • No one may throw an old computer across the street at their neighbor.

OK Then…
 
Harper’s Index 
Kernels of corn it takes to make one kernel of Jelly Belly candy corn: 14
Unusual Fact of the Day
Chuck Connors (The Rifleman) is credited with being the first professional player to break a backboard— which occurred during practice before the first Boston Celtics game on November 5th, 1946.
Joke-of-the-day
There was a little old lady who was nearly blind. She had three sons and they wanted to prove which one was the best son to her.
So son #1 bought her a 15-room mansion thinking this would surely be the best any of them could offer her.
Son #2 bought her a beautiful Mercedes with a chauffeur included thinking he would surely win her approval.
Son #3 had to do something even better than these so he bought her a trained parrot. This parrot had been trained for 15 years to memorize the entire Bible. You could mention any verse in the Bible and the parrot could quote it word for word. How useful his nearly blind mother would find that!
Well, the old lady went to the first son and said, "Son, the house is just gorgeous but it's really much too big for me. I only live in one room, and it's much too large for me to clean and take care of. I really don't need the house, but thank you anyway."
Then she explained to her second son, "Son, the car is beautiful, it has everything you could ever want on it, but I don't drive and I really don't like that driver, so please return the car."
Next, she went to son number three and said, "Son, I just want to thank you for that thoughtful gift. The chicken was small, but delicious."  
Rules of Thumb:   
Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess
INSTALLING A FAN IN A SUN ROOM
To move hot air out of an overheated sun room, you need a thermostatically controlled fan with a flow rate of four to six cubic feet per minute per square foot of glass in the sun room.    
Yeah, It Really Happened
Who says China is not westernized? There is no greater icon of western consumerism than a manic, shopping-obsessed woman, and the woman in today's story has set a new precedent for taking shopping to the extreme; she shopped until her boyfriend killed himself.
Okay, there were probably some underlying issues involved, but most men can appreciate the feeling of frustration when a woman just will. not. stop. going from store to store, uttering empty promises of, "this is the last one."
This man, 38-year-old Tao Hsiao, was escorting his girlfriend around a shopping mall in Xuzhou, Jiangsu province, east China. After five hours Tao finally had enough and demanded to go home.
Eyewitnesses say he could be heard saying they already had more bags than they could carry, but she insisted on going into one more shop where there was a special offer on shoes.
An eyewitness said: "He told her she already had enough shoes, more shoes that she could wear in a lifetime and it was pointless buying any more.
"She started shouting at him accusing him of being a skinflint and of spoiling Christmas, it was a really heated argument."
The shouting match ended when the man threw the bags on the floor and jumped over the balcony, smashing into Christmas decorations on his way down before hitting the floor seven stories below causing shocked shoppers to flee in panic.
If that is not a metaphor for the commercialization of Christmas nothing is.
It is not known whether the woman eventually got her last pair of shoes.
Somewhat Useless Information   
  • In September 1835 Charles Darwin reached the Galapagos Islands and he was extremely fascinated of what he saw there, such as the volcanic rocks and giant tortoises. It is said that once Darwin discovered the Galapagos tortoises, he climbed on top and attempted to ride them, but without being easy to keep his balance!
  • The international educational program DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) has been trying to make students stay away for drug use through strategies that demonstrate all dangers caused by drug use.However, although students are taught the dangers of drugs in an interactive in-school session, DARE has been considered to be ineffective and in some cases the number of drug users at school has been increased.
  • Generally known as ‘hash’, the # symbol defines the Twitter- and blogosphere for the last three years. What we did not know so far was the real name of the # symbol! ‘Octothorpe’! Yes, this is the real name for hash and was coined by engineers at Bell Laboratories in the early 1960s.
  • Around 26% of women in America die because of heart diseases, the most common ‘killer’ there, which is about 316, 000 women per year. But what do heart attacks in women cause? Heart attacks cause pain in the back or jaw and not pain in the chest or the left arm, like it’ s used to happen in men.

Calendar Information        
Happening This Week:
10-17: Human Rights Week
14-28:  Halcyon Days
14-1/5 Christmas Bird Count Weeks 

Today Is                                                                      
·        Day Of The Horse
·        International Shareware Day
·        Monkey Day
·        National Bouillabaisse Day
~~~~~
·        US: Alabama: Admission Day (1819--22nd state)

Today’s Events through History  
"Saturday Night Fever" starring John Travolta, premieres in NYC…1977
1st state road authorized, Frankfort, Ky to Cincinnati…1793
Brooklyn Dodgers sign pitcher Sandy Koufax…1953
Glasgow Underground Railway is opened by the Glasgow District Subway Company…1896
Greece formally takes possession of Crete…1913
Max Planck presents a theoretical derivation of his black-body radiation law…1900
President George W. Bush announces the capture of Saddam Hussein…2003
UN Gen Assembly establishes High Comm for Refugees (Nobel 1954)…1950

Today’s Birthdays                                                           
Patty Duke, [Anna Marie], actress (Miracle Worker) is 67
Vanessa Hudgens. Disney actress and singer is 25

Remembered for being born today
Nostradamus, [Michel de Nostre-Dam], astrologist/prophet [1503-1566]
Morihei Ueshiba "the founder" of Japanese martial art of aikido [1883-1969]
Dan Dailey, dancer and actor (Gov Drinkwater-Governor & JJ) [1915-1978]
Lee Remick, actress (Days of Wine & Rose, Long Hot Summer) [1935-1991]
James H Doolittle, USAF General (Raid on Tokyo 1942) [1896-1993]
Morey Amsterdam, comedian and actor (MMT) [1908-1996]
June Taylor, American choreographer [1917-2004]
Don Hewitt, CBS news executive producer (60 Minutes) [1922-2009]

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           
Myrna Loy, [Williams], US actress (Jazz Singer)…1993…@88
Walter Lippmann, US journalist (One of Dynasty)…1974…@85
Arthur Treacher, TV announcer (Merv Griffin Show)…1975…@81
Stubby Kaye, actor (Guys & Dolls, Sweet Charity)…1997…@79  
Verna Felton, actress (Hilda-December Bride)stroke…1966…@76
Norman Fell, actor (Mr. Ropee)…cancer…1998…@74
Jock Mahoney, actor (Dallas, Cow Town, Range Rider)…stroke…1989…@70
J Louis R Agassiz, Swiss geologist/paleo-biologist)…1873…@67
William Bendix, actor (Life of Riley)…pneumeoia…1964…@58
Roger Maris, HR hitter (61 in 61, NY Yankees)…cancer…1985…@51
Albert, Prince consort of England and husband of Queen Victoria…typhoid…1861…@42
Dinah Washington, singer…overdose…1963…@39
James V, King of Scots (1513-42)…delirium…1542…@30

Brain Teasers
Bill Ding - Architect (building)
Sue Flay - Chef (souffle)
Joe King - Comedian (joking)
Amanda Lynn - Musician (a mandolin) [also: Vi Lynn = violin]
Cam Payne - Politician (campaign)
Warren Peace - Author ("War and Peace")
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  §
Posted by No comments:

12/13/13


FYI: Any blue text is a link. Click to check it out!
Flagstaff Almanac:
Week: 50 / Day: 347   
Today: L 8°…H 39°… Ave. humidity: 59%
Wind: ave:   5mph; Gusts:  12mph  
Average Low: 17° Record Low:  -19° (1931)
Average High: 44° Record High:  66° (1921)

Quote of the Day
 
Today’s Historical Highlights
"A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens published, 6,000 copies sold…1843
1st incident of American Revolution - 400 attack Ft William and Mary, New Hampshire…1774
1st music store in America opens (Phila)…1759
1st time Saturday Night Live uses a time delay (Richard Pryor hosts)…1975
1st US bombing of Hanoi…1966
American Vice President Al Gore delivers his concession speech…2000 
Clip-on tie designed…1928
James Dean begins his career with an appearance in a Pepsi commercial…1950
KOA-AM in Denver CO begins radio transmissions…1924
Los Angeles freezes at 28°F…1938
New Zealand discovered by Dutch navigator Abel Tasman…1642
Pres De Klerk of S Afr meets with Mandela to talk of end of apartheid…1990
Sir Francis Drake sets sail from England to go around world…1577
Susan B Anthony dollar, 1st US coin to honor a woman, issued…1978
Wright Bros make 1st flight at Kittyhawk…1903

♫  Today’s Birthdays: ♫   
How many can you identify? Answers in Today’s Birthdays
 
My Free Rambling Thoughts   
Not the best day for electronics for me. Got up and turned on the computer to discover no internet connection. Did all I could, but to no avail. Called CenturyLink and they remotely reset my modem. After about 5 minutes of various prompts and finally a human, it took about 5 more minutes to reset the crazy thing. Then this afternoon for no apparent reason, the power went off. I discovered that long gone are the days when you call APS and tell a human that your power is off. I called on my cell phone and got a recorded message asking me if this was to report an outage at 6315. How did they know that? It must have been GPS because the cell phone is not listed with APS. Then it was press 1 to report a full outage, press 2 to report a partial outage. Then press 1 if you want a call back when the power is restored or press 2 if you do not want a call back call. I figured I would know when the power came back on, so I pressed 2 and hung up. I must say I miss the human asking for my address, checking and then telling me they have people working on the issue. I could also ask that human if this was expected to be a long out of service issue. Back in the day, they would even call back when the issue was longer than they had ‘guessed’.
 
Good stuff in the news: A California charity spent half a million dollars to buy religious artifacts for the Hopi and San Carlos Apache that were being auctioned off in France. This is the 2nd such auction in recent months. Disappointed that the French Government and the auction house don’t recognize that these items were taken illegally from the two tribes. They wouldn’t be auctioning off European art that had been stolen. They wouldn’t be auctioning off religious items that had been stolen from a Christian church. Yet, they have no problem if it is Native American. People have so much to recognize when it comes to indigenous people’s religion and artifacts.
 
Bad stuff in the news: An interesting story keeps growing on the sign language interpreter at Mandela’s funeral. So many in the deaf community are saying that his signs were little more than gibberish. Now he claims to be schizophrenic and that he was having an episode. It has been interesting to learn that signing is not universal and that each language has its own dialect of signing. Certain signs are used universally, but each language has its own special way. As a linguist, I find that fascinating. Guess I should have already known that.  

Game  Center (answers at the end of post)
Brain Teasers
A wheel with ten holes, No lugs to see; Numbers with letters, Mostly with three.
 Spin me, spin me, Again and again; Though I always return, You can still reach a friend.
 What is being described?
Lifestyle  Substance:     
Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

Very Strange Laws…Louisiana
  • “Fake” wrestling matches are prohibited.
  • A law was passed with the specific intent of stating the punishment for stealing crawfish.
  • Biting someone with your natural teeth is “simple assault,” while biting someone with your false teeth is “aggravated assault”.
  • Every time a person is seriously burned, he must report the injury to the fire marshal.
  • It is a $500 fine to instruct a pizza delivery man to deliver a pizza to your friend without them knowing.
  • It is illegal to gargle in public places.
  • It is illegal to rob a bank and then shoot at the bank teller with a water pistol.
  • It is illegal to shoot lasers at police officers.
  • One could land in jail for up to a year for making a false promise.
  • One could possibly land in jail for 20 years upon urinating in the city’s water supply.
  • One may not “dare” another to go onto railroad tracks owned by another.
  • Persons could land in jail for up to ten years for stealing an alligator.
  • Prisoners who hurt themselves could serve an additional two years in jail.
  • Rituals that involve the ingestion of blood, urine, or fecal matter are not allowed.
  • Running an abortion advertisement can land you in jail for a year.
  • Spectators at a boxing match may not mock one of the contestants.
  • Jefferson Parish--
    • Minors may not go to businesses with coin-operated foosball machines unless accompanied by an adult. \ No one may pour a drink out on the ground at any drive-in movie. \ All garbage must be cooked before it can be fed to any hogs.
  • New Orleans--
    • Don’t try to do any kind of fancy bicycle riding in this town. \ Horses may not be tied to a tree on a public highway. \ One may not host a game of marbles at Lafayette Square unless he or she first obtains a written permit from the parkway and park commission. \ Chasing fish in a city park is against the law. \ “Mardi Gras Beads” may not be thrown from a third story window. \ City commission members may not drink during a public meeting or risk a $50 fine. \ It is illegal to practice voodoo in the city limits. \ Snakes are not allowed within 200 yards of the Mardi Gras parade route. \ Condoms may not be thrown from parade floats during Mardi Gras. \ Television reporters may not throw candy to the crowd during a parade. \ You may not tie an alligator to a fire hydrant. \ It illegal for a woman to drive a car unless her husband is waving a flag in front of it.
  • Port Allen--
    • No person may predict another’s future. \ Only two people may picket on a sidewalk at a time, and they must stay at least five feet apart at all times.
  • Sulphur--
    • It is illegal to have sex with a cow. \ It is illegal to be an alcoholic. \ Saying obscene things on the telephone is illegal.

OK Then…
 
Harper’s Index 
Estimated percentage of all Lucky Charms cereal eaten by adults: 45
Unusual Fact of the Day
Al Capone's brother was a cop.
Joke-of-the-day
Three immigrants to the U. S. were just mastering the language. One was telling the others about the difficulty they were having in attempting to start a family.
He said, "I think my wife must be impregnable."
The second said," that's not the right word, she is inconceivable".
To which the third replied, "You are both wrong she is unbearable."  
Rules of Thumb:   
Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess
FIGURING OUT A MOVIE
In a thriller, you can be certain that any road detour is just a trick to kidnap the occupants of the car.    
Yeah, It Really Happened
TRENTON, N.J. - A New Jersey man awoke from a 10-hour sleep with an aching back only to be told by his brother the cause was a 5-inch knife blade stuck in it, police said. The 42-year-old Trenton man not only was expected to survive but to be out of the hospital in short order, Trenton police said. The unidentified victim, who had been drinking, was stabbed when he got into a fight on his porch about 2 a.m. Sunday, went to sleep without realizing he was wounded and woke up hurting but still unaware of his predicament, police Lt. Mark Kieffer said. "And his brother said he had a knife blade protruding from his back," Kieffer said. The victim was "very uncooperative" when investigators tried to interview him at the hospital, Kieffer told the Times of Trenton. The assailant, who fled during the fight, had not been caught, police said.  
Somewhat Useless Information   
  • The Shahe Aquaduct in China, part of a 700-mile-long artificial river that will take water from the water-rich south to the drier north, is the first of three such planned routes. Together they will make up the South-North Water Transfer Project. It is the largest engineering project on Earth.
  • The Sudokwon Landfill in South Korea covers 20 million square meters. It is the world's largest trash dump in terms of surface area, and it gathers 6.3 million tons of waste every year. Food waste water from this landfill is collected to transform it into biogas. 1,000 tons of food waste water produces 14,400 cubic meters of biogas. The largest gas power plant in the world is powered by the gas generated from the landfill site and provides power to 180,000 households.  

Calendar Information        
Happening This Week:
10-17: Human Rights Week

Today Is                                                                      
·        Ice Cream Day
·        Pick A Pathologist Pal Day
·        Violin Day
~~~~~
·        Malta: Republic Day (1974)
·        Sweden: Santa Lucia Day (ushers in Christmas season)

Today’s Events through History  
Dartmouth College in New Hampshire received its charter…1769
George Gershwin's "An American In Paris" premieres (NYC)…1928
HMS Beagle/Charles Darwin arrives in Port Deseado, Patagonia…1833
In treaty negotiations the CHOCTAW and the US agrees to provide training in the 
     spinning of cotton and spinning wheels…1801
Japanese kamikaze crashes into US cruiser Nashville, kills 138…1944
Kofi Annan is elected as Secretary-General of the United Nations…1996
League of nations establishes Intl Court of Justice in The Hague…1920
Massachusetts Bay Colony organizes three militia regiments to defend against
       the Pequot …1636
Wilson, becomes 1st to make a foreign visit as president (France)…1918

Today’s Birthdays                                                           
George P Schultz, US Secretary of State is 92
Dick Van Dyke, actor (Rob Petrie-Dick Van Dyke Show) is 88
John Davidson, TV host (Hollywood Squares, That's Incredible) is 72
Ted Nugent, guitarist (Cat Scratch Fever, Damn Yankees) is 65
Ben Bernanke, economist/current United States Chairman of the Federal Reserve is 60
Steve Buscemi, actor (Fargo) is 56
Billy Van Zandt, actor is 56
Jamie Foxx, comedian (In Living Color) is 46
Taylor Swift, singer/songwriter (Our Song) is 24

Remembered for being born today
William Drummond of Hawthornden, Scottish poet [1585-1649]
Mary Todd Lincoln, wife of Abraham Lincoln and First Lady [1818-1882]
Clark Mills, US, sculptor (Freedom, Armed Liberty) [1810-1883]
Van Heflin, actor (Great Adventure, Madame Bovary) [1910-1971]
Carlos Montoya, Madrid Spain, guitarist (Suite Flamenco 1966) [1903-1993]
Archie Moore, light-heavyweight boxing champ (1952-60) [1916-1998]
Richard Darryl Zanuck, film producer/executive [1934-2012]

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           
Grandma Moses [Anna M] , US painter…1961…@101
Donatello, Florentine artist and sculptor…1466…@80
Thomas A. Watson, assistant to Alexander Graham Bell…1934…@80
Samuel Johnson, English writer and lexicographer…1784…@75
Samuel Gompers, organizer (American Federation of Labor)…uremia…1924…@74
Tim Moore, actor (Kingfish-Amos 'n' Andy)…TB…1958…@70
Floyd Red Crow Westerman, American actor…lekumeia…2007…@71

Brain Teasers
A rotary telephone.
The dial on a rotary telephone has 10 holes. If this were a wheel on a car, you would fit the holes over the lugs on the hub. Each hole is for a number, 1 through 0. Letters are assigned to most of the numbers. Most of the numbers have three letters assigned. As you dial each number of a telephone number, the dial returns counterclockwise. After completing the dialing, you could reach your friend (or anybody else).
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  §

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Flagstaff, Arizona, United States
I retired in '06--at the ripe old age of 57. I enjoy blogging, photography, traveling, and living life to it's fullest.