Nov 21

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Nov. 21, 2019 Week: 47  Day: 325

86004:   H 45° \ L 26° \ Average Sky Cover: 90%

Nearest active fire:  117mi.  Nearest lightning:  219mi

Wind:   3mph\Gusts:  6mph  Visibility: 7 mi

Record High: 70°[1950]   Record Low: -5°[1979]

Nov. Averages: 53°\23° (3 days with moisture)

Today’s Quote

“The suppression of uncomfortable ideas

may be common in religion and politics,

but it is not the path to knowledge;

it has no place in the endeavor of science.”

~ Carl Sagan

Random Tidbits

Russia is the largest country by land mass in the world. At 6.5 million square miles (17 million square km), Russia is 1.8 times larger than the United States and is slightly larger than Pluto.

The Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, is comprised of 6 buildings with 3 million exhibits. If you spent 2 minutes at each exhibit, it would take 6 years to see everything. The museum is also home to about 70 cats as part of a decree first instated in 1745 by Empress Elizabeth, daughter of Peter the Great, to protect the priceless displays from rodents.

Observances This Week

15-21

International Fraud Awareness Week Link   

15-22

International Restorative Justice Week Link 
National Hunger & Homeless Awareness Week  Link 
Random Acts of Kindness Week  Link  Link

16-22

National Global Entrepreneurship Week  Link

19-26

National Farm-City Week

21-28

International Games Week
Church/State Separation Week
GERD Awareness Week Link
National Bible Week
National Family Week
National Game & Puzzle Week
World Karaoke Championships Link

Observances for Today

Alascattalo Day (About Alaska & humor)
Children's Grief Awareness Day Link
False Confession Day

Family Volunteer Day
Great American Smokeout

Guinness World Record Day Link 
International Games Day (Libraries) Link 
National Adoption Day  Link
National Cranberry Day

 National Gingerbread Cookie Day

National Red Mitten Day (Canada) Link
Playmobil's National Day of Play Link 
Use Less Stuff Day

World Hello Day  Link
World Television Day

My Rambling Thoughts

A day of clouds and rain, with expected snow tonight. Maybe 5”, maybe more, maybe less. That’s the forecast.

I headed to Sam’s to fill up with gas, just in case and to pick up some items. I’m enjoying this cool rainy weather.

I’m having a losing battle with my cable company…Suddenlink. I’m on autopay but in their ‘system migration’ they took my old credit card expiration date. Very long story. Here’s the short version: 4 calls to customer service, one visit to the local store. Finally got the card thing fixed. Each call took over 45 minutes…mostly waiting for the ‘next available agent’. This company has no customer service email address or will give out a physical address for customer service. A decade ago, I had a problem with the previous company, before Suddenlink bought them out. Back then that cable company had a contract with the city of Flagstaff so they could be the sole cable provider to our city. I had to use the city contract person to correct the problem. No such contract now exists. So, the only way to complain is over the phone and they can say a manager will call back, but they never do. Since I have too many trees for a satellite connection, I’m stuck with this crappy system. Some neighbors have roof top dishes, but I talked to a few and when we have snow piled up, there is no TV. Frustrated.

I listened to some of the hearings yesterday and today while I’m on my computer. Interesting if you’re are a student of political science. I’m not that person. I am a voter and understand that a democracy can be messy. I wonder how some of the witnesses ever got government positions, others have been true bureaucrats with lots of notes. This has to be the messiest side of democracy I have ever seen. I hope it ends soon. When and if there is a Senate trial, I’ll get interested again. Until then, it’s all background noise.

Today’s Puzzle

Answer at the bottom of this page

If you carried my burden, you would be crushed.

Though not rich, I leave a trail of silver.

What am I?

Historical Events

164 BC - Judas Maccabeus, son of Mattathias of the Hasmonean family, restored the Temple in Jerusalem. This event is commemorated each year by the festival of Hanukkah.

1783 - Jean Francois Pilatre de Rozier and the Marquis Francois Laurant d'Arlandes became the first men to make a free flight. Their hot-air balloon lifted off from La Muettte, a royal palace in the Bois de Boulogne, Paris. Ben Franklin was among the witnesses.

1832 - Wabash College was founded in Crawfordsville, Indiana.

1846 - The word 'anesthesia' was used by Oliver Wendell Holmes in a letter to William Thomas Green Morton, the surgeon who gave the first public demonstration of the pain-killing effects of ether.

1871 - The patent (#121,049) for a cigar lighter was issued to Moses F. Gale of New York City as an "Improvement in Cigar-Lighters."

1877 - Thomas Edison announced his "talking machine" invention. His phonograph originally recorded sound onto a tinfoil sheet phonograph cylinder. (Patent #200,521, granted in 1878)

1905 - Albert Einstein's paper, Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content?, is published in the journal Annalen der Physik.

1920 - In Dublin, Ireland, 31 people are killed in what became known as Bloody Sunday. This included fourteen British informants, fourteen Irish civilians and three Irish Republican Army prisoners. U2's Sunday Bloody Sunday references the event

1942 - Tweety Bird, aka Tweety Pie, debuted in Tale of Two Kitties. Bob Clampett created the character. Tweety is a boy.

1952 - First US postage stamp (The Red Cross 3 cent) in 2 colors (with the rotary printing process) was introduced.

1953 - #1 Hit: Tony Bennett - Rags To Riches

1953 - Authorities at the British Natural History Museum announced the "Piltdown Man" skull, one of the most famous fossil skulls in the world, was a hoax.

1959 - Jack Benny (violin) & Richard Nixon (piano) play their famed duet.

1959 - DJ Alan Freed, who had popularized the term rock and roll and music of that style, was fired from New York's WABC-AM radio for refusing to deny allegations that he had participated in the payola scandal.

1960 - #1 Hit: Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs - Stay

1964 - World's longest suspension bridge Verrazano Narrows opened (New York City - 4,260 feet). It is still the longest in the western hemisphere.

1967 Vietnam War: American General William Westmoreland tells news reporters: "I am absolutely certain that whereas in 1965 the enemy was winning, today he is certainly losing."

1969 - The first permanent ARPANET (multi computer connection) link was established between UCLA and SRI.

1970 - #1 Hit: The Partridge Family - I Think I Love You

1973 US President Richard Nixon's attorney, J Fred Buzhardt, reveals presence of 18½ minute gap in a White House tape recording related to Watergate

1980 - Everyone asked "Who Shot J.R.?" in last year's Dallas season finale. The season opener of Dallas answered the question people were asking all summer, and well into the fall. Sue Ellen's sister Kristin (played by Mary Crosby) shot J.R..

1980 - A deadly fire brokeout at the MGM Grand Hotel in Paradise, Nevada (now Bally's Las Vegas). Eighty-seven people were killed and more than 650 were injured.

1981 - #1 Hit: Olivia Newton-John - Physical

1987 - #1 Hit: Billy Idol - Mony Mony

1989 - Law banning smoking on most US domestic flights was signed by President George H. W. Bush.

1999 Elian Gonzalez, Cuban boy at the center of a heated 2000 controversy involving the governments of Cuba and the United States, departs from Cuba with his mother

2017 Robert Mugabe's resignation after 37 years in power is read out in Zimbabwe's parliaments during impeachment proceedings

Birthdays Today

@83 – Voltaire, French historian, playwright, and philosopher

(died in 1778)

82 – Marlo Thomas, American actress, producer and activist

@81 – Hetty Green, American businesswoman and financier

('richest miser' died in 1916)

74 – Goldie Hawn, American actress, singer and producer

71 – George Zimmer, American businessman,

founded Men's Wearhouse

68 – René Magritte, Belgian painter (died in 1967)

56 – Nicollette Sheridan, TV actress

54 – Björk, Icelandic Singer/Songwriter

50 – Ken Griffey Jr., American baseball player and actor

48 – Michael Strahan, football player, TV host

34 – Carly Rae Jepsen, Canadian Singer/Songwriter; actress

Puzzle answer:

A snail. They carry their homes on their back, and a house would crush a person (even the tiny houses). And the trail of silver is a bit of a stretch, but it’s the slimy, gooey substance snails leave behind them.

Nov 20

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Nov. 20, 2019 Week: 47  Day: 324

86004:   H 59° \ L 38° \ Average Sky Cover: 60%

Nearest active fire:  27mi.  Nearest lightning:  141mi

Wind:   7mph\Gusts:  11mph  Visibility: 10 mi

Record High: 71°[1976]   Record Low: -5°[1964]

Nov. Averages: 53°\23° (3 days with moisture)

Today’s Quote

“The world is increasingly designed to depress us.

Happiness isn’t very good for the economy.

If we were happy with what we had,

why would we need more?

How do you sell an anti-ageing moisturizer?

You make someone worry about ageing.

How do you get people to vote for a political party?

You make them worry about immigration.

How do you get them to buy insurance?

By making them worry about everything….

To be calm becomes a kind of revolutionary act.

To be happy with your own non-upgraded existence.

To be comfortable with our messy, human selves,

would not be good for business.”

~ Matt Haig

Random Tidbits

While Scotland has the highest proportion (13 percent) of redheads (followed by Ireland with 10 percent), the United States has the largest population of redheads in the world, with between 6-18 million redheads.

Scholars note that redheads have influenced history out of proportion to their numbers. Famous redheads include Roman emperor Nero, Helen of Troy, Cleopatra, Queen Elizabeth I, Napoleon Bonaparte, Oliver Cromwell, Emily Dickinson, Antonio Vivaldi, Thomas Jefferson, Vincent Van Gogh, Mark Twain, James Joyce, Winston Churchill, Galileo, and King David.

Observances This Week

15-21

International Fraud Awareness Week Link   

15-22

International Restorative Justice Week Link 
National Hunger & Homeless Awareness Week  Link 
Random Acts of Kindness Week  Link  Link

16-20

American Education Week Link 

16-22

National Global Entrepreneurship Week  Link

19-26

National Farm-City Week

Observances for Today

Absurdity Day

African Industrialization Day
Beautiful Day

Globally Organized Hug A Runner Day aka G.O.H.A.R.D. Link
Name Your PC Day
National Peanut Butter Fudge Day  Link
Substitute Educators Day  
Transgender Day of Remembrance
Universal Children's Day

My Rambling Thoughts

Over the past few days I put 1850 miles on my vehicle. I was able to visit with former neighbors, friends, and others from Bob’s amazing life. His daughter, Lorie, set up the corporate rate at the brand-new Loveland Marriott. I was in a suite with a king bed, a full kitchen with dishes and utensils for $79/night. Driving 1-25 & I-40 I was able to have an NPR station for the entire trip. The last time I drove that route, there were many dead spots with no radio stations at all. Colorado Public Radio & NM Public radio are doing a fantastic job. And on the way home Sunday I got to listen to the first 3q of the Broncos game. Really nice since that was the time they were winning. Both freeways were having major construction areas on my drive.

As for the service/reception, it was so nice to see so many Focus Travelers and catch up. Lorie and her sister, Lisa, had made an amazing slide show of Bob’s life. And I was able to catch up with neighbors from the old hood. I took a couple of hours and drove around the old haunts. My Jr. High was completely gone and replaced by a new building for my old elementary school. My old elementary school was replaced years ago with a new elementary school, and that is now a magnet Special Needs school for Jeffco. My high school is still standing and has added lots of new buildings. I was disappointed by the changes near my grandfather’s old home. Marycrest Convent, where my grandfather was a groundskeeper with his brother, is much smaller, my grandfather’s house, once part of Marycrest, is now condos. When we were growing up there was a beautiful statue with lots of green grass at the entrance to Marycrest on the corner of Federal & 52^nd. It is now a Starbucks. Surely that is a sacrilege.

It was a very enjoyable, though sad, weekend. I was honored to be one of the pallbearers…and at the burial, the mortuary staff made special mention of honoring the 6 pallbearers for their service to Bob. I thought that was a nice touch also. Two female Air Force officers were there for the military part and Taps was awesome. When Bob, Marge and their family first moved to Wheat Ridge they lived in an apartment building across one of the side streets to the cemetery. The apartment building is still there and is visible from their burial site. Amazing.

There is a light rain here today, which should turn to snow tonight or tomorrow and the weather guy says to expect 3-6” of the white stuff by Thursday.  I’m ready for some snow. Then, according to the weather guy, it will be in the 60’s this weekend. Weather at 7000’ is always interesting.

Today’s Puzzle

Answer at the bottom of this page

I am bought by the yard but worn by the foot.

What am I?

Historical Events

1789 New Jersey is 1st state to ratify Bill of Rights

1866 - US patent (#59,745) for a yoyo, called a "Whirligig" or "Bandalore" in the paperwork, was issued to James L. Haven and Charles Hittrick of Cincinnati, Ohio.

1866 - The US patent (#59,918) on a rotary crank bicycle was issued to Pierre Lallemont of Paris, France.

1888 - Willard LeGrand Bundy was issued the first U.S. patent (#393,205) for a time recording clock. His company went on to help start TCR in 1911, which evolved into IBM.

1906 - Charles Stewart Rolls and Frederick Henry Royce formed Rolls-Royce.

1911 The funeral of Paul and Laura Lafargue (daughter of Karl Marx) in Paris is attended by Lenin; the two socialists died in a suicide pact in the belief that their political usefulness was at an end

1929 Salvador Dali's first one-man show

1929 - First broadcast of The Goldbergs on NBC radio. The original title was 'The Rise of the Goldbergs', until 1936, when it moved to CBS. It was also on television, in various forms from 1949 to 1956. ABC began it's own The Goldbergs on September 24, 2013.

1945 - The Nuremburg Trials with an International Military Tribunal made up of four judges one from each country United States, Soviet Union, Britain and France begin when charges against Germany's Nazi leaders.

1959 - WABC fired Alan Freed over the payola scandal. The early rock and roll DJ died in 1965, and in 2002 his ashes were moved to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio.

1962 - USSR agreed to remove bombers from Cuba, & US lifted the blockade.

1965 - #1 Hit: The Supremes - I Hear A Symphony

1966 - Broadway Show - Cabaret (Musical) opened

1969 - Cleveland, Ohio's The Plain Dealer published explicit photographs of dead villagers from the My Lai Massacre in Vietnam.

1971 - #1 Hit: Isaac Hayes - Theme from Shaft

1973 - A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving aired on CBS for the first time.

1982 - Drew Barrymore, at age 7, hosted Saturday Night Live. She was starring in the hit film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial at that time.

1998 Court in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan declares accused terrorist Osama bin Laden "a man without a sin" in regard to the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania

1999- John Carpenter became the first world-wide winner of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. The $1 million question was, "Which of these U.S. Presidents appeared on the television series 'Laugh-In'?", with the choices being A) Lyndon Johnson, B) Richard Nixon, C) Jimmy Carter, and D) Gerald Ford. He knew the answer and used his lifeline to call his father to tell him that he was winning a million dollars.

2003 - Michael Jackson was booked on suspicion of multiple counts of child molestation, later acquitted on all charges. He was released on $3 million bond.

2010 - #1 Hit: Rihanna featuring Drake - What's My Name?

2013 - Two campus police officers who pepper-sprayed peaceful student protesters at a close range at the University of California were suspended. The memes made the incident immortal.

2014 Nearly 5 million illegal migrants in the US have the threat of deportation deferred, after President Barack Obama announces sweeping immigration changes

2018 Mississippi 15-week abortion ban overturned by US judge saying it violated women's constitutional rights

Birthdays Today

@95 – Alistair Cooke, British-American journalist and author

(died in 2004)

92 – Estelle Parsons, American actress (The Golden Girls)

@92 – Evelyn Keyes, American actress [GWTW]

(died in 2008)

@84 - Chester Gould, American cartoonist,

creator of Dick Tracy

(died in 1985)

77 – Joe Biden, American lawyer and politician,

(47th Vice President of the United States)

@76- – Bob Einstein, American actor, producer and

screenwriter Super Dave Osbourne

(d. 2019; cancer)

72 – Joe Walsh, American Singer/Songwriter, guitarist

[Eagles], producer and actor

@69 – Judy Canova, American actress and comedian

(died in 1983; cancer)

63 – Bo Derek,

(born Mary Cathleen Collins)

American actress and producer

@63 – Edwin Hubble, American astronomer and cosmologist

(died in 1953; stroke)

56 – Ming-Na Wen [(Chinese: 溫明娜; pinyin: Wēn Míngnà],

Chinese-American actress (Mulan, Agents of

S.H.E.I.L.D.)

48 – Joel McHale, American comedian, actor and producer

43–  Dominique Dawes, Olympic gymnast

@42– Robert F. Kennedy, American politician

(assassinated in 1968)

Puzzle answer:

Carpet. Worn is used in the sense of a well-worn item.