May 14

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

May 14, 2020 Week: 20 Day: 135

86004: H 69° \ L 36° \ Average Sky Cover: 5%

Wind: 10mph\Gusts: 18mph Visibility: 10 mi

Nearest lightning: 590mi.; Nearest active fire: 268mi.

High Risk of Fire

Record High: 83°[1938] Record Low: 21°[1942]

May Averages: 68°\34° (3 days with moisture)

Today’s Quote

"The use of traveling is to regulate imagination

with reality, and instead of thinking

of how things may be, see them as they are."

— Samuel Johnson

Random Tidbits

Before they were famous:

J.K. Rowling

“Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling taught English in Portugal in the early 1990s. She began work on her legendary tale of the boy wizard while working in Portugal.

Art Garfunkel

One half of Simon and Garfunkel worked as a math teacher in Connecticut as a young man. He once told an interviewer for Forbes: “I would have been comfortable being a teacher. I supported myself in high school by tutoring kids and making decent money at it. That was my first instinct about what I could do to make money.”

Have a smile

A friend sent these to me

Question: What's a lumberjack's favorite director?

TimBuuurrrrrrrton

Observations This Week

Ramadan: 23-5/23

National Public Gardens Week: 8-17  Link
INVICTUS GAMES: 9-16  Link 
Universal Family Week: 10-16
Food Allergy Awareness Week: 10-16 Link
National Hospital Week: 10-16 Link
National Nursing Home Week: 10-17
National Police Week:  10-16
National Return To Work Week:  10-17
National Transportation Week: 10-16 
National Women's Health Week: 10-16 Link  Link
Reading is Fun Week:  10-17 Link 
Salute to Moms 35+ Week: 10-16 
Salvation Army Week: 10-17 
Brain Injury Awareness Week: 11-17 Link
National Etiquette Week: 11-15  
National Stuttering Awareness Week: 11-17
Work At Home Moms Week: 11-17 
American Craft Beer Week: 11-17 Link
Cannes Film Festival: 12-23 Cancelled due to COVID-19
World Schizophrenia Awareness Week: 13-19  Link
PGA Championship: 14-17 Moved to August due to COVID-19  Link

Observations for Today

Apraxia Awareness Day Link
Dance Like a Chicken Day

National Brioche Day

National Buttermilk Biscuit Day

National Decency Day Link LinkThe Stars and Stripes Forever Day
Underground America Day

My Rambling Thoughts

A little cooler today, but so far, only light winds. Nice walk while it was still calm. Then tackled cleaning the downstairs bathroom and laundry room. Great day.

A reader sent me this great parody. Check it out:

Opera Parody for COVID-19

NAU students are getting money from the CARES Act. Full time students who have a PELL Grant get $500 and all other full time students are getting $400. Each student just has to fill out a short form and the money is deposited into their bank account within 7 days. Good deal.

Flagstaff Shelter Services has moved all their clients to one of three hotels in town to assist with social distancing. They got a special deal, since most hotels in our tourist town are empty. This pandemic is far from over.

Today’s Puzzle

Answer at the bottom of the page

The more you take away from me,

the bigger I become.

What am I?

Historical Events

1796 - Edward Jenner, a doctor from Gloucestershire, England successfully tested his vaccination for smallpox on eight year old James Phipps.

1804 - Lewis and Clark expedition left St. Louis, Missouri, on a mission to explore the Northwest from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean.

1842 - Alfred Lord Tennyson published Poems.

1850 - The first US. patent (#7,365) for a dish washing machine was issued to Joel Houghton of Ogden, NY, for an "Improvement in Machines for Washing Table Furniture".

1897 - The Stars and Stripes Forever by John Philip Sousa was first performed in public near Willow Grove Park, Philadelphia.

1925 - Virginia Woolf's novel Mrs Dalloway was published.

1932 - The first electrical timing device was tested at a track meet between Columbia and Syracuse at Baker Field, NYC.

1948 - In Tel Aviv, Jewish Agency Chairman David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the State of Israel

1949 US President Harry Truman signs bill establishing a rocket test range at Cape Canaveral

1955 - The Warsaw Pact was signed between the Soviet Union, Albania, Poland, Romania, Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Bulgaria in response to the west's North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

1961 Bus with 1st group of Freedom Riders bombed & burned in Alabama

1969 Last Chevrolet Corvair built1973 - Skylab I was launched.

1973 US Supreme court approves equal rights to females in military

1980 Department of Health & Human Services begins operation

1986 Netherlands Institute for War Documentation publishes Anne Frank's complete diary

1995 Dalai Lama proclaims 6-year-old Gedhun Choekyi Nyima 11th reincarnation of Panchen Lama, Tibet's 2nd most senior spiritual leader

1998 - 76.3 million people tuned in for the series finale of Seinfeld.

2013 Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novel "Americanah" is published

2018 Chinese mountain climber and double amputee Xia Boyu reaches the summit of Mt Everest

2018 Boulder City Council in Colorado votes to ban assault weapons

Birthdays Today

76-Director George Lucas

@72-Dancer Eddie Cantor (d. 1964)

68-Singer David Byrne

59-Actor, Director Tim Roth

51-Actor Cate Blanchett (1969)

@37-Singer Bobby Darin (d. 1973; sepsis)

36-Entrepenaur Mark Zuckerberg

Puzzle Answer:

A hole

May 13

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

May 13, 2020 Week: 20 Day: 134

86004: H 72° \ L 39° \ Average Sky Cover: 10%

Wind: 9mph\Gusts: 15mph Visibility: 10 mi

Nearest lightning: 541mi.; Nearest active fire: 482mi.

Extreme Risk of Fire

Record High: 82°[1984] Record Low: 18°[1953]

May Averages: 68°\34° (3 days with moisture)

Today’s Quote

"I am not the same,

having seen the moon shine

on the other side of the world."

— Mary Anne Radmacher

Random Tidbits

Before they were famous

Andy Griffith

Before he was a successful sitcom star, Andy Griffith was a mediocre music teacher. “The first day, I’d tell the class all I knew, and there was nothing left to say for the rest of the semester,” he once told an interviewer.

Gene Simmons

Kiss lead singer Gene Simmons once worked as a teacher. "I used to be a sixth-grade teacher in Spanish Harlem," he said. "I did it for six months, and I wanted to kill every single kid." But in a separate interview, he said: "Children need to learn to be selfish, to put themselves first and not care what other people think."

Have a smile

A friend sent these to me

Question: What do you call a blind dinosaur?

 A do-think-he-saurus

Observations This Week

Ramadan: 23-5/23

National Public Gardens Week: 8-17  Link
INVICTUS GAMES: 9-16  Link 
Universal Family Week: 10-16
Food Allergy Awareness Week: 10-16 Link
National Hospital Week: 10-16 Link
National Nursing Home Week: 10-17
National Police Week:  10-16
National Return To Work Week:  10-17
National Transportation Week: 10-16 
National Women's Health Week: 10-16 Link  Link
Reading is Fun Week:  10-17 Link 
Salute to Moms 35+ Week: 10-16 
Salvation Army Week: 10-17 
Brain Injury Awareness Week: 11-17 Link
National Etiquette Week: 11-15  
National Stuttering Awareness Week: 11-17
Work At Home Moms Week: 11-17 
American Craft Beer Week: 11-17 Link
Cannes Film Festival: 12-23 Cancelled due to COVID-19
World Schizophrenia Awareness Week: 13-19  Link

Observations for Today

Bike To School Day Link Cancelled due to COVID-19
Children of Fallen Patriots Day
Crouton Day
Donate A Day's Wages To CharityFrog Jumping Day

Hummus Day Link
National Apple Pie Day

National Fruit Cocktail Day

National Hummus Day

National Night Shift Workers Day

National Receptionist Day

National Third Shift Workers Day
Receptionists Day

School Nurses Day

My Rambling Thoughts

Tuesday is becoming a windy day. Expecting 40+mph this afternoon. I'm skipping my forest walk.

Talked to a few friends yesterday and this morning on the phone. Everyone is doing well. Everyone is tired of the stay-at-home thing. Mary had a good Mother's Day. Both her son and daughter sent her free meals that can be delivered. Her daughter sent her 2 meals from her favorite local restaurant, and her son got her 4 meals to cook from Blue Apron. Nice. Salsa Brava, the local restaurant gave her enough of their in-house made chips and salsa for an army along with the meals.

Yesterday afternoon Pine Ridge Reservation had 2 COVID-19 cases in the Wounded Knee District. The council met and shut down the reservation for 72 hours beginning at 7pm yesterday. No one is to leave their home. They don't mess around up there.

Today’s Puzzle

Answer at the bottom of the page

How can you take 2 from 5 and leave 4?

Historical Events

1607 - English in Virginia founded Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in North America.

1637 - The rounded table knife was created by Cardinal Richelieu in France.

1890 - Nikola Tesla was issued a patent (#428,057) for an electric generator.

1917 - Three children, Lúcia Santos and her cousins Jacinta and Francisco Marto report the first apparition of Our Lady of Fátima in Fátima, Portugal.

1939 - The first commercial FM radio station in the United States is launched in Bloomfield, Connecticut. The station later became WDRC-FM.
1973 - Bobby Riggs beat Margaret Court in a $10,000 winner-take-all challenge tennis match. Billie Jean King played him on September 20, 1973 and won the second Battle of the Sexes.

1981 - Pope John Paul II was shot by Mehmet Ali Agca.

1985 - Philadelphia Mayor W. Wilson Goode ordered police to raid the MOVE headquarters, and a small bomb was detonated on top of 6221 Osage Avenue. Six adults and five children were killed in the fire that destroyed the entire block, along with 250 nearby homes.

1994 - Johnny Carson made his last television appearance on Late Show with David Letterman.

2013 Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield departs the International Space Station to return to Earth

2019 Sri Lanka imposes a nationwide curfew from 9pm to 4am to curb violence against Muslims after the Easter Sunday terrorist attacks

2019 Former President of Sudan Omar al-Bashir is charged in connection with the deaths of protesters the previous month

2019 Diary of Dutch statesman Johan van Oldenbarnevelt's last days rediscovered and displayed for the 400th anniversary of his execution

Birthdays Today

@86-Actor Bea Arthur [Bernice Frankel] (d. 2010)

70-Musician Stevie Wonder [Stevland Hardaway Morris]

59-Athlete Dennis Rodman

56-TV Host Steven Colbert

34-Actor Robert Pattinson

Puzzle Answer:

F  I V   E Remove the letters F and E from five and you have IV.

May 12

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

May 12, 2020 Week: 20 Day: 133

86004: H 76° \ L 39° \ Average Sky Cover: 20%

Wind: 7mph\Gusts: 15mph Visibility: 10 mi

Nearest lightning: 111mi.; Nearest active fire: 647mi.

High Risk of Fire

Record High: 86°[1996] Record Low: 28°[1983]

May Averages: 68°\34° (3 days with moisture)

Today’s Quote

"We travel, some of us forever,

to seek other states, other lives, other souls."

— Anais Nin

Random Tidbits

Before they were famous

LBJ

Future president Lyndon Johnson taught speech at a high school in Houston, where he drilled relentlessly, putting the debate team through dozens of practice competitions. But when the team lost in the state finals, Johnson was so upset that he ran to the bathroom and threw up.

Frank McCourt

“Angela’s Ashes” author Frank McCourt taught high school in New York for 30 years before he became a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer.

Observations This Week

Ramadan: 23-5/23

National Nurses Day and Week: 6-12 Link  Link
National Public Gardens Week: 8-17  Link
INVICTUS GAMES: 9-16  Link 
Universal Family Week: 10-16
Food Allergy Awareness Week: 10-16 Link
National Hospital Week: 10-16 Link
National Nursing Home Week: 10-17
National Police Week:  10-16
National Return To Work Week:  10-17
National Transportation Week: 10-16 
National Women's Health Week: 10-16 Link  Link
Reading is Fun Week:  10-17 Link 
Salute to Moms 35+ Week: 10-16 
Salvation Army Week: 10-17 
Brain Injury Awareness Week: 11-17 Link
National Etiquette Week: 11-15  
National Stuttering Awareness Week: 11-17
Work At Home Moms Week: 11-17 
American Craft Beer Week: 11-17 Link
Cannes Film Festival: 12-23 Cancelled due to COVID-19

Observations for Today

Fatigue Syndrome Day

Free Cone Day (Haagen-Dazs) Cancelled due to COVID-19
Hug Your Cat Day Link
International Awareness Day for Chronic International Nurses Day

Immunological and Neurological Diseases  Link
International Nurses Day Link   Link
Lag B'Omer
Limerick Day

Native American Rights Day
National Nutty Fudge Day Link
Odometer Day

My Rambling Thoughts

There was a nice female rain last night for at least a couple of hours. Sidewalks were still wet at 7am. It was a much needed rain and was greatly appreciated.

South Dakota's governor is in a battle with two tribes, Pine Ridge and Cheyenne River. Both tribes set up checkpoints on their reservations. Treaties and sovereignty give them control ON their reservations. The checkpoints were set up and take about a minute to fill out a form. Vehicles with legitimate business [medical, food, …] are permitted. Vehicles of non-residents are detoured around either reservation. The tribes are attempting, successfully, of keeping COVID-19 off their respective reservations. The governor of the State of South Dakota does not agree. She also doesn't seem to understand sovereignty of Natives. She has ordered that the checkpoints be removed. The tribes, with the help of a Federal judge, have refused. Hopefully this will remain in the courts and that the ignorant governor does not call in the National Guard. Good for the tribes for protecting their people.

An update from the Navajo Nation: There are over 3100 positive cases. This is the highest per capita in the US.

Everyday for the past couple of weeks, a tow truck has been driving through our parking lot. I've only seen them two one vehicle, but they return daily. Finally figured it out what is going on. Today a couple of guys were walking around changing the signs in the parking area. Our HOA has gotten a new towing company. The new signs have their name and phone number. Also list prices: Non-commercial vehicles without a permit: $195 + $35/day; Commercial vehicles without a permit: $250 + $45/day. I have lived here over a decade and have never had a problem parking close to my front door, with or without these Draconian policies. I should add that both of my closest neighbors have 3 vehicles each with parking permits. The extra permit cost each of them $85.

Today’s Puzzle

Answer at the bottom of the page

What does 'Las Vegas' mean in Spanish?

The desert The meadows The wasteland

The starlight

Historical Events

1215 English barons serve ultimatum on King John which eventually leads to the creation and signing of the Magna Carta

1551 - The National University of San Marcos, the oldest university in the Americas, was founded in Lima, Peru.

1789 William Wilberforce makes his first major speech on abolition in the UK House of Commons, reasoning the slave trade morally reprehensible and an issue of natural justice

1926 Airship Norge is the first vessel to fly over North Pole, lead by Roald Amundsen and piloted by Umberto Nobile

1928 Benito Mussolini ends women's rights in Italy

1932 - The body of the Lindbergh baby was found less than a mile from the Lindbergh home in Hopewell, New Jersey.

1949 1st foreign woman ambassador received in USA (Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit of India)

1984 South African prisoner Nelson Mandela sees his wife for 1st time in 22 years

1963 - Bob Dylan walked out on The Ed Sullivan Show before his planned appearance over the lyrics to the song he would perform his song Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues.

1995 - Day time soap opera As The World Turns aired its 10,000th episode

2002 Former US President Jimmy Carter arrives in Cuba for a five-day visit with Fidel Castro becoming first President of the United States, in or out of office, to visit the island since Castro's 1959 revolution.

2013 Pope Francis canonizes the 813 martyrs of Otranto as Saints

2019 Cuba announced more rationing of products such as rice and beans due to US trade embargo and hoarding

2015 - A train derailment in Philadelphia killed 8 people and injured over 200.

Birthdays Today

@96-Actor Katherine Hepburn (d. 2003)

91-Composer Burt Bacharach

@90-Founder of Modern Nursing Florence Nightingale (d. 1910)

@71-Comedian George Carlin (d. 2008; heart failure)

58-Singer, actress Vanessa Williams

54-Actor, producer Stephen Baldwin

42-Actor, comedian Jason Biggs

52-Skateboarder Tony Hawk

58-Actor Emilio Estevez

50-Actor Kim Fields

Puzzle Answer:

The Meadows