2-12-14


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Flagstaff Almanac:
Week: 07 / Day: 043   
Today: L 31°…H 53°… Ave. humidity: 66%
Wind: ave:   8mph; Gusts:  18mph  
Average Low: 18° Record Low:  -16° (1965)
Average High: 45° Record High:  58° (2002)

Quote of the Day

 Today’s Historical Highlights
1541 - Santiago, Chile founded
1709 - Alexander Selkirk, Scottish seaman rescued after 4+ years-Fernandez Island (inspiration for Daniel Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe")
1733 - Georgia founded by James Oglethorpe, at site of Savannah
1832 - Ecuador annexes Galapagos Islands
1855 - Michigan State University was established.
1876 - Al Spalding opens his sporting good shop
1879 - 1st artificial ice rink in North America (Madison Sq Garden, NYC)
1914 - In Washington, DC, the first stone of the Lincoln Memorial is put into place.
1955 - Pres Eisenhower sends 1st US advisors to S Vietnam
1964 - Beatles 1st NYC concert (Carnegie Hall)
1994 - 17th Winter Olympic games opens in Lillehammer, Norway
1999 - President Bill Clinton is acquitted in his impeachment trial.
2002 - US Secretary of Energy decides Yucca Mountain is suitable to be the US nuclear waste repository.
2004 - San Francisco, California begins issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples

♫  Today’s Birthdays: ♫   
How many can you identify? Answers in Today’s Birthdays


My Free Rambling Thoughts   
An interesting day with bureaucrats today. I got a bill from the anesthesia person for my second cataract surgery. As usual with medical bureaucracy getting answers to questions is virtually impossible. My first eye was $35 for anesthesia; the second eye was $65 after my insurance. The first eye was $490, the second eye was $630. The first eye was done by a local independent, while the second eye was done by a big group with billing offices in PA.  Eye Doctor’s office says that the use the only big company because the doc does many surgeries in a day and needs to have multiple anesthesia persons and only uses the local independent lady when no one is available from the big company. They have nothing to do with the billing by the anesthesia person. So I call the billing company and they say that they charge by the minute and that I was ‘under’ for 21 minutes on the second surgery. So I call the independent lady and she to bills by the minutes I was ‘under’ and that time I was ‘under’ for 28 minutes. I will be filing a complaint with my eye doctor the next time I go in. The lesson here is ‘buy local’. My local v WalMart comparison with the big company…that when you buy local you usually pay more, and when you buy from a big corporation you usually pay less…fell on deaf ears.
 
Foot is slowly getting better with the med for inflammation. Very little pain walking today. Sure just wish I knew what I did so I won’t do it again.
Game  Center (answers at the end of post)
Brain Teasers
You are touring an island, but it is not any old island. All the residents here are either a type T or L person.
Type T people ALWAYS tell the truth.
Type L people ALWAYS lie.
Now a person comes up to you and says, "I am a Type L person."
What type of person are they?
Lifestyle  Substance:     
Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

Remembering TV’s great shows:
"60 Minutes" The stopwatch continues to tick for the pioneering news program, which set the standard for compelling nonfiction storytelling.
Words Shakespeare invented
heart of goldHenry V; Act 4. Scene I
PISTOL  The king's a bawcock, and a heart of gold, A lad of life, an imp of fame; Of parents good, of fist most valiant. I kiss his dirty shoe, and from heart-string I love the lovely bully. What is thy name?
OK Then…
 
Harper’s Index 
Portion of the hundred tallest building currently under construction worldwide that are in China: 3/5
Unusual Fact of the Day
If the tracks on a typical compact discs ran in a straight line, they would travel about 3 miles  
Joke-of-the-day
One day while walking down the street a highly successful HR Director was tragically hit by a bus and she died. Her soul arrived up in heaven where she was met at the Pearly Gates by St. Peter himself.
"Welcome to Heaven," said St. Peter. "Before you get settled in though, it seems we have a problem. You see, strangely enough, we've never once had a Human Resources Director make it this far and we're not really sure what to do with you."
"No problem, just let me in," said the woman. "Well, I'd like to," replied St. Peter, "but I have higher orders. What we're going to do is let you have a day in Hell and a day in Heaven and then you can choose whichever one you want to spend an eternity in."
"Actually, I think I've made up my mind, I prefer to stay in Heaven," said the woman.
"Sorry, we have rules..." And with that St. Peter put the executive in an elevator and it went down-down-down to hell. The doors opened and she found herself stepping out onto the putting green of a beautiful golf course. In the distance was a country club and standing in front of her were all her friends - fellow executives that she had worked with and they were all dressed in evening gowns and cheering for her. They ran up and kissed her on both cheeks and they talked about old times. They played an excellent round of golf and at night went to the country club where she enjoyed an excellent steak and lobster dinner. She met the Devil who was actually a really nice guy (kinda cute) and she had a great time telling jokes and dancing. She was having such a good time that before she knew it, it was time to leave. Everybody shook her hand and waved good-bye as she got on the elevator. The elevator went
up-up-up and opened back up at the Pearly Gates and she found St. Peter waiting for her.
"Now it's time to spend a day in heaven," he said. So she spent the next 24 hours lounging around on clouds and playing the harp and singing. She had a great time and before she knew it her 24 hours were up and St. Peter came and got her. "So, you've spent a day in hell and you've spent a day in heaven. Now you must choose your eternity," he said. The woman paused for a second and then replied, "Well, I  never thought I'd say this, I mean, Heaven has been really great and all, but I think I had a better time in Hell." So St. Peter escorted her to the elevator and again she went down-down-down back to Hell.
When the doors of the elevator opened she found herself standing in a desolate wasteland covered in garbage and filth. She saw her friends were dressed in rags and were picking up the garbage and putting it in sacks. The Devil came up to her and put his arm around her.
"I don't understand," stammered the woman, "yesterday I was here and there was a golf course and a country club and we ate lobster and we danced and had a great time. Now all there is, is a wasteland of garbage and all my friends look miserable."
The Devil looked at her and smiled. "Yesterday we were recruiting you, today you're staff..."
Rules of Thumb:   
Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess
RUNNING A DAIRY
The average useful life of a dairy cow is five to seven years.    
Yeah, It Really Happened
 A Florida resident said he thinks a monkey photographed in his neighborhood might have been behind a pair of car break-ins. The monkey in the Mirabay neighborhood of Apollo Beach was photographed recently by a neighborhood resident, and experts said it appears to be a rhesus macaque.
Corey Beckman, a photojournalist, said he spotted the monkey a couple weeks ago while relaxing at his home and soon came to suspect the primate of being behind two car break-ins the previous week.
Beckman said the cars were ransacked, but nothing was taken.
"You'd think anybody breaking into a car wound find it nice seeing a GPS there an iPod but they just left it all sitting here," Beckman said.
"Maybe it didn't like my music," Beckman joked.
The monkey hasn't caused any injuries and neighbors said they would like to see it relocated without being harmed.
  • Somewhat Useless Information   
  • The climate of the Sahara has undergone enormous variations and it was not always the hottest desert in the world, actually it was not even a desert! The Sahara used to be green and wet around 9,000 years ago and will possiby be again after 15, 000 years. The Neolithic Subpluvial was the most recent of a number of periods of “Wet Sahara” or “Green Sahara”, during which the region was much more moist and supported a richer biota and human population than the present-day desert.
  • ‘Tootsie pops’ are hard candy lollipops filled with chocolate-flavored chewy Tootsie Roll and were invented in 1930 by Lukas R. “Luke” Weisgram. The company changed its name to Tootsie Roll Industries in 1969 and it is said that in 2002, sixty million Tootsie Rolls and twenty million Tootsie Pops were produced every day. According to several tests it became known that it takes 142,18 licks for someone to reach the center of a tootsie pop!
  • Big Ben, whose chimes are one of the best -known sounds in London, is the huge clock situated in the Houses of Parliament in London and it first rang in 1858. This bell, whose diameter is 2,7 meters, weighs 13 tons. It is the largest bell that has ever been made in England. There are several explanations about the name of Big Ben. The most popular is that the bell was named after Sir Benjamin Hall, who was a tall, rather fat member of the Parliament.

Calendar Information        
Happening This Week:
☼7-14☼
Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Week 
Have A Heart for A Chained Dog Week  
Risk Awareness Week
Winter Olympics
Love Makes the World Go Round; But, Laughter Keeps Us From Getting Dizzy Week
☼9-15☼
Celebration of Love Week
Children of Alcoholics Week
Jell-O Week
Freelance Writers Appreciation Week
Random Acts of Kindness Week 
International Flirting Week
Love a Mench Week
National Green Week

Today Is                                                                       
·        Darwin Day
·        Lincoln's Birthday
·        NAACP Day founded in 1909
·        Oglethorpe Day
·        Paul Bunyan Day
·        Safety Pup Day

Today’s Events through History  
1502 - Vasco da Gama sets sail from Lisbon, Portugal on his second voyage to India.
1908 - NY to Paris auto race (via Alaska & Siberia) begins in NYC 
1931 - Vatican Radio begins broadcasting with the call sign HVJ
1950 - Albert Einstein warns against hydrogen bomb
1987 - Survivors of a black man murdered by KKK members awarded $7 M damages
2007 - A gunman opens fire in a mall in Salt Lake City, killing 5 people in the Trolley Square shooting.

Today’s Birthdays                                                           
Joe Garagiola, sportscaster/host (Today Show) is 88
Charles Van Doren, American quiz show contestant is 88
Bill Russell, Monroe La, NBAer (Boston Celtics, Oly-gold-56) is 80
Joe Don Baker, actor (Eischied, Walking Tall) is 78
Maud Adams, Sweedish actress (Octopussy, Rollerball, Tattoo) is 69
Joanna Kerns, [de Varona], actress (Maggie-Growing Pains) is 61
Arsenio Hall, comedian (Alan Thicke, Arsenio, Coming to America) is 58
Chynna Phillips, vocalist (Wilson Philips-Hold On) is 46
Josh Brolin, actor (Johnny-Private Eye, Jimmy Hickok-Young Riders) is 46
Christina Ricci, actress (Wednesday-Addams Family, Mermaids, Casper) is 34

Remembered for being born today
1663 - Cotton Mather, witchcraft authority
1809 - Abraham Lincoln, Kentucky, (R) 16th US President (1861-65)
1809 - Charles Darwin, England, discovered evolution (Origin of the Species)
1893 - Omar Bradley, General of Army WW II (GI General)
1904 - Ted Mack, Denver Colorado, TV host (Original Amateur Hour)
1915 - Lorne Greene, Ottawa Canada, actor (Bonanza, Battlestar Galactica)
1919 - Forrest Tucker, actor (O'Rourke-F Troop, Dusty Trail)

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           
Eubie Blake, ragtime-composer/pianist (Memories of You), 1983, @96
Charles M. Schulz, American cartoonist, cancer, 2000, @77
Tom Landry, American football coach, leukemia, 2000, @75
Sidney Toler, actor (Charlie Chan, Dark Alibi), cancer, 1947, @72
Oliver, American pop singer, cancer, 2000, @54
Ethan Allen, American patriot, stroke, 1789, @51
Grant Wood, US painter (American Gothic), cancer, 1942, @50
Sal Mineo, actor (Exodus, Rebel Without a Cause), stabbed, 1976, @37
Jane Grey, queen of England for 9 days, beheaded, 1554, @17

Brain Teasers
A tourist.
A type T could not say that, because he would be lying. A type L couldn't say it, because he would be telling the truth. So the person couldn't be either. Also, since you are touring the island, there are probably others too. And a tourist could either lie or tell the truth. In this case, he would be lying.
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:

2-11-14


FYI: Any blue text is a link. Click to check it out!
Flagstaff Almanac:
Week: 07 / Day: 042   
Today: L 25°…H 52°… Ave. humidity: 64%
Wind: ave:   6mph; Gusts:  20mph  
Average Low: 18° Record Low:  -12° (1908)
Average High: 45° Record High:  62° (1971)

Quote of the Day
 
Today’s Historical Highlights
1790 - Society of Friends petitions Congress for abolition of slavery
1794 - 1st session of US Senate open to the public
1809 - Robert Fulton patents steamboat
1812 - Massachusetts Governor Gerry signs a redistricting bill - 1st "gerrymander"
1858 - 1st apparition of Mary to 14-year-old Bernadette of Lourdes France
1897 - White Rose Mission opens on East 97th Street, NYC
1928 - 2nd Winter Olympic games opens in St Moritz, Switzerland
1937 - 44-day sit-down strike at General Motors in Flint Mich ends
1942 - "Archie" comic book debuts
1960 - Jack Paar walks off his TV show
1963 - Julia Child's show The French Chef premieres.
1970 - Japan becomes 4th nation to put a satellite (Osumi) in orbit
1978 - China lifts a ban on Aristotle, Shakespeare, & Dickens
1978: The "longest walk" takes place to protest Indian treatment.
1990 - Nelson Mandela (political prisoner-27 years) freed in South Africa
1992 - Michael Johnson runs indoor world record 400m (44.97 sec)
1993 - Janet Reno selected by President Clinton as US Attorney General
2013 - Pope Benedict XVI announces his resignation

♫  Today’s Birthdays: ♫   
How many can you identify? Answers in Today’s Birthdays
 
My Free Rambling Thoughts   
Foot pain is minor, but still there. Taking the anti-inflammatory, but saving the pain killer for a time when I really need to walk somewhere. Certainly is bearable, just not up to 100% yet. This getting old-er thing certainly has its surprises. Slept through the night quite well, but had some very vivid drug induced dreams…at least I assume they were drug induced.
 
Our winter weather has disappeared yet again…lots of clouds, but nice temperatures. Didn’t take my daily walk as I was advised against it till this foot thing stops being inflamed.
 
FB has a lot of Beatles supporters, claiming to be fans from the mid 60’s, but many of them post about their memories of the ‘Beetles’. hmmmm
Game  Center (answers at the end of post)
Brain Teasers
The following clues each form a unique word by themselves, add them together to get the name of a country. Example: blue and yellow mixed + solid ground = ? Answer: green + land = Greenland 
1. something that will make you sick + an indefinite number = ? 
2. half of the width of an em + an organ for secreting = ? 
3. a swindle + to move or travel = ? 
4. an animal's shelter + a visible sign = ?

Lifestyle  Substance:     
Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

Remembering TV’s great shows:
"Hill Street Blues" The police procedural found a genre-busting new voice in Steven Bochco's rowdy chronicle of a busy urban precinct.
Words Shakespeare inventedgreen eyed monster: Othello Act 3 Scene 3IAGO:
Oh, beware, my lord, of jealousy!It is the green-eyed monster which doth mockThe meat it feeds on. That cuckold lives in blissWho, certain of his fate, loves not his wronger,But, oh, what damnèd minutes tells he o'erWho dotes, yet doubts— suspects, yet soundly loves!
OK Then…
 
Harper’s Index 
  • Estimated portion of homes in Gary, Indiana, that are abandoned and unoccupied: 1/3
  • Number of these homes the city has been able to sell to qualified buyers for one dollar: 12

Unusual Fact of the Day
The duffel bag is named for Duffel, Belgium, where the cloth used in the bags was originally sold.
Joke-of-the-day
This man in a Ford Granada pulls up next to a guy in a Rolls Royce at a stop sign. Their windows are open and he yells at the guy in the Rolls: "Hey, you got a telephone in there?"
The guy in the Rolls says, "Yes, of course I do."
"I got one too... see?"
"Uh, huh, yes, that's very nice."
Then the man in the Granada says, "You got a fax machine?"
"Why, actually, yes, I do."
"I do too! See? It's right here!" "Uh-huh."
The light is just about to turn green and the guy in the Granada says, "So, do YOU have a double bed in back there?"
And the guy in the Rolls says, "NO! Do you?"
"Yep, got my double bed right in back here — see?!"
The light turns and the man in the Granada takes off. Well, the guy in the Rolls is not about to be one-upped, so he goes immediately to a customizing shop and orders them to put a double bed in back of his car. About two weeks later, the job is finally done and he picks up his car and drives all over town looking for the Granada. He finally finds it parked alongside the road so he pulls his Rolls up next to it. The windows on the Granada are all fogged up and he feels a little awkward about it, but he gets out of his newly modified Rolls and taps on the foggy window of the Granada. The man in the Granada finally opens the window a crack and peeks out.
The guy in the Rolls says, "Hey. Remember me?"
"Yeah, yeah, I remember you. What's up?"
"Check this out — I got a double bed installed in my Rolls."
And the man in the Granada says, "YOU GOT ME OUT OF THE SHOWER TO TELL ME THAT?!"  
Rules of Thumb:   
Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess
TAKING A LIE DETECTOR TEST
If you are innocent, do not take a lie detector test. If you're guilty, take it, because it may exonerate you.    
Yeah, It Really Happened
EASTPOINTE, Mich. - A Syrian couple opening a Detroit area restaurant called "The Bomb" said they want to invoke the slang term for "awesome" rather than terrorism. George and Rana Kasar, who are from Syria, said they wanted to rebrand after purchasing the Eastpointe restaurant, which was called Ideli under previous management, WWJ Detroit reported Tuesday. "It's his idea, my husband's idea," Rana Kasar said. "I said, 'No! It's too much!' He's like, 'No, no, no. I think it's going to be perfect.'" "[It's] a little bit scary. They think we're terrorists now," Rana Kasar said of local residents. However, she said terrorism is not what the name is designed to invoke. "Something like, when they eat something they're like, 'Wow! It's the bomb,'" she said. The eatery will serve both Middle Eastern and other dishes, with their signature creation being "The Bomb Fajita."  
Somewhat Useless Information   
  • Ever wondered why the world's #1 social network is all dressed up in various shades of blue? It's because Mark Zuckerberg suffers from red-green color blindness, and is able to see the color blue best, according to a CNN article.
  • Legendary actor Al Pacino's face was on the homepage of the original Facebook that Zuckerberg built out of his Harvard dorm. The photo was only replaced as recently as 2007 (three years since its inception) when Facebook redesigned its homepage for good.
  • If you check Facebook's help center, it merely explains how a 'poke' works, but doesn’t define exactly what it is. According to the book The Facebook Effect, Zuckerberg allegedly said this to a query on Facebook pokes: "We thought it would be fun to make a feature that has no specific purpose... So mess around with it, because you're not getting an explanation from us."
  • iStrategy Lab, a digital consultancy firm, released a report in January 2014 confirming the trend that Facebook is becoming less popular with "younger users." Facebook has over 4 million fewer high-school aged users and close to 7 million lesser college-aged users than it did back in 2011.
  • According to a Pew Research Center report, among people who use the internet but aren’t on Facebook, 52 percent say that someone else in their family has a Facebook account. And 24 percent of such passive Facebook non-users who live with an account holder claim they look at photos or posts on that person's account. 
  • According to research firm eMarketer, India is the second biggest market for Facebook with 84.9 million users (as of late 2013). Not surprisingly, the United States is the biggest market for the social network with 146.8 million users.

Calendar Information        
Happening This Week:
☼7-14☼
Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Week 
Have A Heart for A Chained Dog Week  
Risk Awareness Week
Winter Olympics
Love Makes the World Go Round; But, Laughter Keeps Us From Getting Dizzy Week
☼9-15☼
Celebration of Love Week
Children of Alcoholics Week
Jell-O Week
Freelance Writers Appreciation Week
Random Acts of Kindness Week 
International Flirting Week
Love a Mench Week
National Green Week

Today Is                                                                       
·        Be Electrific Day
·        Don't Cry Over Spilled Milk Day
·        Extraterrestrial Culture Day
·        Extraterrestrial Visitor Day
·        Get Out Your Guitar Day
·        Make A Friend's Day
·        Pro Sports Wives Day
·        National Shut-in Visitation Day
·        Satisfied Staying Single Day
·        White Shirt Day or White T-shirt Day
·        World Day of The Sick
++++++
·        National Foundation Day (Japan-660BC)
·        Independence Anniversary (Vatican City-1929 from Kingdom of Italy)
·        Youth Day (Cameroon)

Today’s Events through History  
1766 - Stamp Act declared unconstitutional in Virginia
1878 - 1st US bicycle club, Boston Bicycle Club, forms
1896 - Oscar Wildes "Salome," premieres in Paris
1958 - 1st flight with black stewardess, RC Taylor, Ithaca NY

Today’s Birthdays                                                           
Conrad Janis, NYC, actor (Mork & Mindy, Quark, Bonino) is 86
Burt Reynolds, actor is 78
Tina Louise, actress (Ginger-Gilligan's Island) is 80
Sergio Mendes, jazz/pop musician (Brazil '66/'77/'88) is 72
Sheryl Crow, musician (All I Want to Do-Grammy 1995) is 52
Sarah Palin, American politician is 50
Jennifer Aniston, actress (Rachel-Friends) is 45
Brandy [Norwood], singer (Les Miserables, Moisha) is 35
Taylor Lautner, actor (Twilight) is 22

Remembered for being born today
1800 - William Henry Fox Talbot, photographic pioneer
1802 - Lydia Maria Child, US, author/abolitionist (Juvenile Miscellany)
1812 - Alexander H. Stephens, US Confederate Vice President
1847 - Thomas Alva Edison, inventor-1200 patents
1874 - Elsa Beskow, [Maartman], Swedish children's book/fairy tales author
1909 - Max Baer, heavyweight boxing champ (1934-35)
1917 - Sidney Sheldon, novelist (Bloodline)/ TV producer (Patty Duke)
1919 - Eva Gabor, Hungarian-born actress (Lisa-Green Acres, Gigi)
1921 - Lloyd Bentsen, (Sen-D-TX, 1971- )/1989 Dem VP nominee)
1926 - Leslie Nielsen, Canadian actor (Forbidden Planet, Naked Gun)

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           
Don Porter, actor (Gidget), 1997, @84
Charles Parsons, inventor of the steam turbine, neuritis, 1931, @77
William Conrad, actor (Cannon), heart attack, 1994, @73
Peter Benchley, author (Jaws), pulmonary fibrosis, 2006, @65
Lee J Cobb, actor (12 Angry Men, On the Waterfront), heart attack, 1976,@64
Rene Descartes, philosopher "I think therefore I am", pneumonia, 1650, @53
Whitney Houston, singer and actress, accidental drowning, 2012, @48
Patrice Lumumba, 1st premier Congo, murdered, 1961, @34

Brain Teasers
1. germ + any = Germany  2. en + gland = England  3. con + go = Congo  4. den + mark = Denmark 
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.