Dec 12

FYI: Any blue text is a link. Click to check it out!

Dec. 12, 2019 Week: 50  Day: 346

86004:   H 45° \ L 23° \ Average Sky Cover: 70%

Nearest lightning:  1408mi

Nearest active fire:  368mi.  

Wind:   5mph\Gusts:  9mph  Visibility: 10 mi

Record High: 64°[1921]   Record Low: -16°[1961]

Dec. Averages: 44°\17° (5 days with moisture)

Today’s Quote

“Don’t let yesterday

use up too much of today.”

Will Rogers

~ Native American Proverb

Observances This Week

3-24

Andisop (Meterological Fiddling  Link

10-17

Human Rights Week

Observances for Today

Gingerbread House Day

International Day of Neutrality
National 12-hour Fresh Breath Day
National Ambrosia Day

National Ding-a-Ling Day Link
National Cocoa Day  Link
National Lost Day Link
Our Lady of Guadelupe Link
Poinsettia Day

My Rambling Thoughts

Our retirement group had a great lunch at Little America here in Flagstaff. The place has been around for decades and is nice. They have redone the lobby and conference center area and the restaurant. Now is really nice. I had a delicious salad with lettuce, apricots, cheese, and great dressing along with a Tuna Melt on Rye. Outstanding. We did a gift exchange. I had given the nice knit Christmas Sock to hang on a mantle, some fancy soap and lotion, a Amaryllis, and a great pop-out card. I got a pair of fleece-lined slipper socks that are comfortable &very warm and an Amaryllis in a tall glass cylinder that is much nicer than the ones I gave. Our lunch and conversation lasted longer than usual, but well worth every minute.

The city and our local university (NAU) have been trying to define the role each plays in our town. The biggest contention is the many huge (300+bed) complexes being built off-campus to house students. Parking, traffic, and bus service are the biggest issues. Not to mention a huge change in the character of the areas where these are being built. A new bumper sticker has started appearing around town: “Welcome to Flagstaff; a suburb of NAU”. Timely and appropriate.

On a more positive spin for Arizona: Orangutan in zoos are likely to get a respiratory illness that can easily lead to their death. Recently the Phoenix Zoo had an orangutan get it. After the vet gave little hope, they called an MD who deals with similar illnesses in humans. He operated, since the anatomy is so similar. The orangutan is now thriving. The MD has since done similar operations on 3 other orangutans at other zoos in the US. After seeing orangutan on a Focus trip I was really happy to read this.

Today’s Puzzle

Answer at the bottom of this page

If there is a basket of 15 apples and you take five of them, how many apples do you have?

Historical Events

1694 The Royal Society censures Edmond Halley for suggesting in a paper titled 'Some considerations about the cause of the universal deluge' that the story of Noah's flood could be an account of a cometary impact

1787 - Pennsylvania became the second state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

1874 Hawaii King David Kalakaua is 1st king to visit the US as guest of Ulysses S. Grant at 1st US state dinner at the White House

1917 - Father Edward J. Flanagan founded Boy's Town in Omaha, Nebraska.

1925 - The Mo-Tel of San Luis Obispo, California (between Los Angeles to San Francisco) opened as the first motel. The word Motel is a combination of the words 'Motorist' and 'Hotel.'

1946 UN accepts 6 Manhattan blocks as a gift from John D. Rockefeller Jr

1953 - Chuck Yeager established the speed record (mach 2.5) record flying a Bell X-1A, a slightly larger, but much modified version of the Bell X-1

1961 Adolf Eichmann is found guilty of war crimes in Israel

1964 - #1 Hit: Bobby Vinton - Mr. Lonely

1967 - Guess Who's Coming To Dinner, starring Katharine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy, Sidney Poitier opened in theaters.

1970 - #1 Hit: Smokey Robinson & the Miracles - The Tears of a Clown

1980 - Leonardo da Vinci's Leicester Codex was sold to Armand Hammer for $5.12 million. Bill Gates later bought it from the Hammer Estate for 30.8 million in 1994.

1986 - The Golden Child, and Three Amigos debuted in theaters.

1987 - #1 Hit: George Michael - Faith

1989 - 69 year-old Leona Helmsley, the "Queen of Mean", received a four-year prison sentence, along with750 hours of community service, and a $7.1 million tax fraud fine in New York.

2000 US Supreme Court releases its decision in Bush v. Gore, settling the recount dispute in Florida's 2000 presidential election in George W. Bush's favor and thus handing him the presidency

2003 - Keiko the Orca (or killer whale), star of the Free Willy movies died in his home of Taknes fjord, in Norway.

2012 - 12/12/12/ The Concert for (Hurricane) Sandy Relief took place at Madison Square Garden.

2018 Michael Cohen, former lawyer for US President Donald Trump sentenced to three years in prison for campaign-finance violations and tax fraud

Birthdays Today

96 - Bob Barker, American game show host

@88 - Ed Koch, American politician,

           105th Mayor of New York City

            (died in 2013)

@82 - Frank Sinatra, American singer and actor

           (died in 1998)

82 - Connie Francis,

           Concetta Rosa Maria Franconero

       American singer and actress

@80 - Edvard Munch, Norwegian painter and illustrator (died in 1944)

79 - Dionne Warwick, singer, actress

@79 - Edward G. Robinson, American actor

           (died in 1973; bladder cancer)

@72 - Henry Wells, American businessman,

           co-founder of Wells Fargo and American Express

           (died in 1878)

70 - Bill Nighy, English actor

67 - Cathy Rigby, American gymnast

44 - Mayim Bialik, American actress

@22 - Otto Warmbier, American student imprisoned in North Korea

      a(died in 2017)

Puzzle answer:

5. The question was not how many were left in the basket.

Dec 10

FYI: Any blue text is a link. Click to check it out!

Dec. 10, 2019 Week: 50  Day: 344

86004:   H 44° \ L 16° \ Average Sky Cover: 15%

Nearest lightning:  283mi

Nearest active fire:  468mi.  

Wind:   7mph\Gusts:  8mph  Visibility: 10 mi

Record High: 65°[1939]   Record Low: -10°[2013]

Dec. Averages: 44°\17° (5 days with moisture)

Today’s Quote

“It is no longer good enough to cry peace,

we must act peace, live peace and live in peace.”

– Leon Shenandoah, Onondaga chief

~ Native American Proverb

Observances This Week

3-10

Clerc-Gallaudet Week Link

3-24

Andisop (Meterological Fiddling  Link

10-17

Human Rights Week

Observances for Today

Dewey Decimal System Day
Human Rights Day  Link
International Animal Rights Day  Link
Jane Addams Day
National Lager Day

Nobel Prize Day

My Rambling Thoughts

Our retirement group meets tomorrow for our Christmas lunch and gifting. I headed out to World Market/Cost Plus for some gifts. I found the gifts quickly, then wandered the store…always dangerous to my credit card. They have amazing Christmas stuff. I walked out spending about 5 times more than I intended. I got other Christmas presents, some cute decorations, and some Christmas breads. A very good visit. As much as I like the store, I only go there for gifts for our retirement group…if I went more often, my house would look like their store and my weight gain would be easily observed.

Today’s hearings are a tad more contentious than previous ones. I guess watching ‘democracy in action’ is just like watching ‘hot dogs being made step by step’.

Saw the New Zealand volcanic eruption on the internet machine. While it was erupting there were at least 30 travelers from Royal Caribbean Cruise line on the island. Scary for sure.

Here we go again…Russia has been banned from the Olympics and the World Cup for years ahead. This time it has to do with drug enhancements of the athletes. I was not a big fan of the USSR ban back in the 80’s and the related US ban four years later. The Olympics are about ATHLETES, and should not be about politics. And yes, I realize there is politics in the Olympics, but I don’t like athletes who have worked much of their life preparing to miss their usual one chance to participate. This ban is different. This time athletes who used banned substances can’t participate but ‘clean’ athletes from those teams can participate, just not under their country flag or hear their National Anthem if the take gold. This appears to be the best solution to a difficult solution.

Today’s Puzzle

Answer at the bottom of this page

f it takes two men 4 hours to dig one hole, how long does it take them to dig half a hole?

Historical Events

Nobel Prize Day

1901 First Nobel Peace Prizes awarded to Red Cross founder Jean Henri Dunant and peace activist Frederic Passy

1946 German/Swiss novelist Hermann Hesse wins the Nobel Prize in Literature "for his inspired writings which, while growing in boldness and penetration, exemplify the classical humanitarian ideals and high qualities of style"

1950 Ralph Bunche (1st black American) presented the Nobel Peace Prize for mediation in Israel

1959 Nobel Prize for Literature awarded to Sicilian writer Salvatore Quasimodo for his lyrical poetry

1960 Willard Libby wins the Nobel prize in Chemistry for his work developing carbon-14 dating (radiocarbon dating).

1964 Nobel Peace Prize presented to Dr Martin Luther King Jr. in Oslo

1967 Guatemalan author Miguel Ángel Asturias is awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in Stockholm

1976 Samuel C. C. Ting is the first person to deliver a Nobel Prize lecture in Mandarin, during the ceremony to award him and Burton Richter the Nobel Prize for Physics for discovering the J/ψ particle

1978 Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat accept the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo

1983 Danuta Walesa, wife of Lech Wałęsa, accepts his Nobel Peace Prize

1984 South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu is presented with his Nobel Peace Prize

1986 Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel accepts 1986 Nobel Peace Prize

1994 Nobel Peace Prize presented to Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres and Yasser Arafat

2009 US President Barack Obama accepts the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo

…other events

1033 (Earthquake) Ramala (West Bank)

1478 - Arte dell'Abbaco ('The Art of the Abacus'), the first teaching math book, was printed and distributed in Treviso, Italy. Author unknown.

1768 – The first edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica was published.

1817 – Mississippi became the 20th US state.

1845 - British engineer Robert Thompson patented the first pneumatic (air pressured) tires.

1869 - Montana granted women the right to vote.

1884 -Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was published.

1899 - George Safford Parker was issued a US patent (#635,700) on his improved fountain pen.

1936 Edward VIII signs Instrument of Abdication, giving up the British throne to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson

1948 - The United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration on Human Rights.

1955 - The Mighty Mouse Playhouse began a long-standing "Saturday Morning Cartoon' tradition on CBS.

1963 - Frank Sinatra Jr. was kidnapped, then released after $250,000 ransom was paid. The kidnappers were all caught a few days later.

1965 - The Grateful Dead played their first concert, at the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco.

1966 - #1 Hit: The Beach Boys - Good Vibrations

1967 - Otis Redding and members of the Bar-Kays were killed in a Wisconsin plane crash.

1983 - #1 Hit: Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson - Say, Say, Say

1988 - #1 Hit: Chicago - Look Away

2009 - Avatar was released in theaters.

2017 Governor of California Jerry Brown tours Southern Californian wildfires and declares them "the new normal"

2018 Theresa May cancels UK parliament vote on Brexit bill in face of certain defeat

2018 Emmanuel Macron announces in TV address rise in minimum wage and tax concessions after weeks of civil unrest

Birthdays Today

@81 - Dorothy Lamour, American actress and singer (died in 1996)

67 - Susan Dey, American actress

@62 - Chet Huntley, American journalist

     (died in 1974; lung cancer)

62 - Paul Hardcastle, English composer

59 - Kenneth Branagh, Northern Ireland-born English actor director, producer, and screenwriter

58 - Nia Peeples, American singer

@55 - Emily Dickinson, American poet

     (died in 1886)

55 - Bobby Flay, American chef

45 - Meg White, American drummer

41 - Summer Phoenix, American actress

Puzzle answer:

t's impossible to dig half a hole. If you tried, you would just end up with a whole hole.