31 Dec

 

31 December 2022

Daily Almanac for Flagstaff
Week 53 Day 365 \ Ave. Sky Cover 5% \ Visibility 25 miles Flagstaff Today 45° \31° 
Wind 5mph \ Gusts 13mph  Air Quality: Fair \Very Low Risk of fire \ Nearest active fire 131mi \ Nearest Lightning 1245mi
Dec Averages for Flagstaff: 43° \ 17° `
Sunshine

Today’s Quote

Weekly Observations

Christmas Bird Count Week: 14-1/5 Link 
Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over: 15 - 1/1/23  
Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over: 15 - 1/1/23  Link 
It's About Time Week: 25-31
Kwanzaa: 26-1/1

Daily Observations

First Nights
Hogmanay Link
Leap Second Time Adjustment Day
Make Up Your Mind Day
National Champagne Day 
New Years Eve
New Year's Eve Banished Words List
New Year's Dishonor List
Universal Hour of Peace Day
World Healing Day  Link  
World Peace Meditation Day
World Peace Meditation Day

My Sometimes-Long-Winded Thoughts

Sun is shining brightly on the white snow. We are in between storms with the next one due around the time we change to 2023…starting about midnight.

The HOA crew came in and cleared off our parking spaces and driveways. Glad they did it as there was still an inch or so of ice in most of the parking spaces. During the day, I am usually the only vehicle in the parking spaces, so I quickly moved my vehicle so they would have an easier time.

I get the Southwest computer issues. When our trip to Tahiti was cancelled, just as the pandemic was turning real, I flew into Denver on Southwest, arriving about 6pm. The next morning our trip was cancelled, and I went to the Southwest counter to change the date of my return flight. The Southwest staff was just learning about COVID, along with everyone else. A very kind lady worked for almost 45 minutes, then called her supervisor, who worked about 20 minutes before calling the next supervisor. After about 90 minutes I got a flight. They were all great, it was the computer that wouldn’t cooperate. I even got their names and wrote a letter to Southwest corporate to thank them. The whole Southwest problem is NOT the employees, it is the corporate office that hasn’t kept up with technology. I hate to see the front-line employees having to take the brunt of the criticism.

Since 1999, Flagstaff has had a pinecone drop at the historic Weatherford Hotel in downtown Flag.  It is a lighted metal pinecone that drops on New Year’s Eve. The drop is only 2 stories, but that is the tallest building. It is returning this year after a 2-year hiatus because of Covid. Nice to have it back.

Pinal County…Florence, AZ is the county seat…has just finished their midterm recount. Lots of errors were found. Every recount has a few ballots that were miscounted. The Pinal County recount sent off alarm bells since about 150 ballots were incorrectly counted. The recount verified that a Democrat is our new attorney-general here in AZ.

Favorite Memes Winter Wonderland cont.

Facts…

Australia is Earth’s smallest continent — closer in size to Greenland than any other continent. So why did geographers decide Australia was a continent instead of an island like Greenland? For starters, Australia has a much larger landmass than Greenland: roughly 3 million square miles compared to Greenland’s 836,000 square miles. It also sits on a tectonic plate, which is partially shared with Asia, while Greenland is on the same tectonic plate as all of North America. Also, much of Australia’s plant and animal life is endemic to the country, including its Indigenous people. The Aboriginal people of Australia are found nowhere else in the world, while the Indigenous people of Greenland, the Inuit, live on different continents in the Arctic. Altogether, these facts led geographers to classify Australia as a continent, although it is technically an island.

….

In most cities, Christmas comes once a year… unless you live in Santa Claus, Indiana, the self-proclaimed home of the holiday season and America’s first theme park: Santa Claus Land. While amusement parks have existed in the U.S. since the 1840s, at the beginning the general idea was just having fun. It wasn’t until 1946, with Santa Claus Land’s opening, that amusement parks began developing specific themes. The attraction took advantage of the town’s unique name, hoping to draw in visitors who wanted to experience a bit of holiday spirit any time of year, and especially youngsters keen to meet St. Nick himself. Owner Louis Koch, who built the theme park as a retirement project, planned the destination with children in mind; his original park featured a toy shop, doll displays, children’s rides, and a restaurant. Over time, Koch also added a mini circus, deer farm, wax museum, and live entertainment.

But Santa Claus Land’s biggest attraction was, of course, its namesake: Santa. Its Kris Kringle impersonators took the job seriously; the park’s longest-working Santa, Jim Yellig, wore the red-and-white suit for 38 years. During his tenure, Yellig reportedly heard more than 1 million holiday wishes from park visitors, an achievement that earned him induction into the International Santa Claus Hall of Fame in 2010. Santa Claus Land went through some upgrades around the time of Yellig’s retirement in 1984, adding on zones for Halloween, Thanksgiving, and the Fourth of July. Today, the park goes by the name Holiday World, and continues to welcome more than 1 million visitors each season. 

Slang Origins

1951: GOPer

Meaning: a member of the Republican party

The Republican party has been calling itself the “Grand Old Party” since the 1850s, with the acronym credited to a T.B. Dowden, a newspaper typesetter who needed to make room for the last two words in a story. It’s unclear why the term took so long to be applied to members of the party, but Dowden’s acronym is still used to shorten headlines today.

Mysteries…

WHEN WAS JESUS BORN?

While many Christians today celebrate Dec. 25 as the birth of Jesus, he likely was not born on this day. The date Dec. 25 may have been chosen because it’s close in time to Saturnalia, a Roman festival that celebrated the god Saturn. The earliest records of Dec. 25 being the birthday of Jesus date to the fourth century – more than 300 years after his birth.

Ancient records suggest that early Christians were never able to agree on a date when Jesus was born and even today many Orthodox Christians celebrate Jesus’ birthday as being on Jan. 6 or 7. In the end, it is unlikely that the date of Jesus’ birth will ever be known — in fact, even the precise year is not certain, although scholars generally agree that it was sometime around 4 B.C. 

….

WERE THE HANGING GARDENS OF BABYLON REAL?

Ancient writers describe a fantastic series of gardens constructed at the ancient city of Babylon in modern-day Iraq. It's not clear when these gardens were built, but some ancient writers were so impressed by the gardens that they called them a "wonder of the world." Around 250 B.C., Philo of Byzantium wrote that the Hanging Gardens had "plants cultivated at a height above ground level, and the roots of the trees are embedded in an upper terrace rather than in the earth."

So far, archaeologists who have excavated Babylon have been unable to find the remains of a garden that meets this description. This has left archaeologists with a question: Did the hanging gardens really exist? In ­2013, Stephanie Dalley, a researcher at the University of Oxford, proposed in a book that the gardens were actually located at the Assyrian city of Nineveh. Over the past two decades, both Babylon and Nineveh have suffered damage from wars and looting, and it seems unlikely that this mystery will ever be fully solved.

Historical Events

The first word most people say every year is “happy.”
1600 – The British East India Company was chartered. At one point it had a hand in 50% of the whole world’s trade and business.
1907 – The first New Year’s Eve celebration was held in Times Square (then known as Longacre Square) in Manhattan.
1983 – the United States Government broke up AT&T ‘Ma Bell’ telephone system monopoly.
On December 31, 1999, Albert Einstein was chosen as person of the century by Time.

Birthdays Today

87 – Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, King of Saudi Arabia
85 – Anthony Hopkins, actor
@84 – Henri Matisse, French artist (d. 1954)
“For my part, I have never avoided the influence of others. I would have considered it cowardice and a lack of sincerity toward myself.”– Henri Matisse
80 – Andy Summers, English guitarist, and songwriter (The Police)
79 – Ben Kingsley, English actor
@78 – George Catlett Marshall, American General (d. 1959; strokes)
“The only way human beings can win a war is to prevent it.”– George Marshall
@77 – Odetta (Holmes), American singer-songwriter, actress (d. 2008; heart disease)
75 – Tim Matheson, American actor
64 – Bebe Neuwirth, American actress, and dancer
@63 – Donna Summer, American singer (d. 2012; lung cancer)
63 – Val Kilmer, American actor
@53 – John Denver, American singer-songwriter (d. 1997; plane crash)
45 – Donald Trump, Jr., American businessman
27 – Gabby Douglas, American gymnast
“My message is to never quit, never give up. When you have a little trouble here and there, just keep fighting. In the end, it will pay off.”– Gabby Douglas

 

30 Dec

 

30 December 2022

Daily Almanac for Flagstaff
Week 53 Day 364 \ Ave. Sky Cover 80% \ Visibility 10 miles Flagstaff Today 45° \20° 
Wind 6mph \ Gusts 12mph  Air Quality: Fair \Low Risk of fire \ Nearest active fire 131mi \ Nearest Lightning 954mi
Dec Averages for Flagstaff: 43° \ 17° `
Overcast with occasional sun breaking through

Today’s Quote

 

Weekly Observations

Christmas Bird Count Week: 14-1/5 Link 
Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over: 15 - 1/1/23  
Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over: 15 - 1/1/23  Link 
It's About Time Week: 25-31
Kwanzaa: 26-1/1

Daily Observations

Bacon Day Link  Link
Falling Needles Family Fest Day
Festival of Enormous Changes @ The Last Minute
National Bicarbonate of Soda Day
No Interruptions Day

My Sometimes-Long-Winded Thoughts

Our mountain town is between storms. Clouds remain. It is not too cold so that is a positive.

I bought some groceries this morning…just in case. No real snow drops until early New Year’s Day, but here, we never know. The last storm was very wet as I discovered when I cleared off my vehicle yesterday.

Edson Arantes do Nascimento, known to us as Pelé, passed at 82 this morning. He was well known around the world. He will be missed.

I talked to Cheryl this morning. She is back from spending 5 weeks with her son and his family. She was very upbeat and is even talking about possibly doing knee replacement since she is tried of the pain and difficulty walking. Good for her.  

Favorite Memes Winter Wonderland cont.

Facts…

Most people already know that Mount Everest, with a peak that sits 29,035 feet above sea level, soars above any other mountain on the planet. However, if we’re talking about mountains that exist below sea level, then Hawaii’s Mauna Kea blows Mount Everest out of the water, so to speak. At 32,696 feet from base to summit, Mauna Kea is approximately 3,661 feet taller than Everest. The reason Mauna Kea doesn’t receive more recognition for its size? Most of the mountain exists underwater, with only 13,796 feet rising above sea level.

A geyser is a hot spring that erupts water and steam, due to pressure that is created underground. Formed as a water-filled tube that connects the atmosphere to the Earth’s crust, a geyser erupts when magma heats the water, forcing it upward towards the Earth’s surface. Although a geyser is not the same as a volcano, they are somewhat related, as a geyser manifests the same sort of activity, with eruptions fueled by magma. However, unlike a volcano, it is easier to predict when a geyser will blow, as it produces notable seismic activity prior to an eruption. As a result, some researchers study geysers to help them understand more information about volcanoes. There are also certain geysers that blow in a timely manner, like the aptly named Old Faithful — a Yellowstone National Park attraction that erupts roughly 20 times a day.

If you’re curious as to the geographical distinction between Key West in Southern Florida and Ambergris Cay in Turks and Caicos, here’s the short answer: There is no difference. The geographical terms cay and key are a little bit like “tomato, to-mah-to” — the use of the term depends on where you are. Both are derived from the Spanish word cayo, which translates to “key,” and they’re used interchangeably to describe a low-lying island, sandbar, or coral reef. As a tropical destination with over 60 islands and keys, the British Virgin Islands is also home to a “Key Cay,” making it the only place in the world where both terms are used to describe a single place.

Measuring 4,130 miles in length, the Nile River in Africa is often considered to be the longest river in the world, while the Amazon River in South America comes in at a close second. Although past data has shown that the Amazon River is anywhere between 3,980 and 4,000 miles in length, a 2007 expedition claimed the length of the Amazon to be an astonishing 4,225 miles. However, since this measurement has not been internationally recognized, the debate over the longest river in the world continues. As a result, many recognize the Nile as the longest river, but give Amazon the title of the largest river by volume. 

Slang Origins

1950: Blockbuster

Meaning: expensive to make but commercially successful (especially movies)

In an age in which box-office breaking movies are coming out every year—if not every weekend—it’s hard to imagine a “blockbuster” being anything but the newest Marvel flick. The term was originally used to describe a bomb that had destroyed a city block. Later, advertisers used this association when marketing their action-packed war movies before it became something that could apply to any movie.

Mysteries…

FATE OF THE ARK OF THE COVENANT

In 587 B.C., a Babylonian army, under King Nebuchadnezzar II, conquered Jerusalem, sacking the city and destroying the First Temple, a building used by the Jewish people to worship God. The First Temple contained the Ark of the Covenant, which carried tablets recording the 10 Commandments.

The fate of the Ark is unclear. Ancient sources indicate that the ark was either carried back to Babylon or hidden before the city was captured. It's also possible that the ark was destroyed during the city's sacking. In any event, the ark's location is unknown. Since the disappearance, a number of stories and legends about the ark's fate have been told. One story suggests the ark eventually made its way to Ethiopia, where it is kept today. Another story says the ark was divinely hidden and will not appear until a messiah arrives.

Historical Events

1903 – A fire at the Iroquois Theater in Chicago, Illinois killed at least 605 people.
1916 – Russian mystic and advisor to the Tsar Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin was murdered by a group led by Prince Felix Yusupov. His frozen, partially-trussed body was found in a Moscow river three days later.

Birthdays Today

85 – Paul Stookey, American singer-songwriter
@82 – Joseph Bologna, American actor (d. 2017)
@80 – Jack Riley, American actor (d. 2016)
80 – Michael Nesmith, American singer-songwriter, Monkee
80 – Fred Ward, American character actor
@79 – Bo Diddley [Ellas Otha Bates], singer-songwriter guitarist (d. 2008)
@77 – Bert Parks, American actor and beauty pageant host (d. 1992; lung caner)
76 – Patti Smith, American singer-songwriter and poet
@70 – Rudyard Kipling, Indian-English author (d. 1936; perforated ulcer)
@73 – Simon Guggenheim, American businessman (d. 1941)
@72 – Skeeter Davis, American singer-songwriter (d. 2004; lung cancer)
@55 – Del Shannon, American singer-songwriter(d. 1990; suicide)
69 – Meredith Vieira, American journalist
@66 – Davy Jones, English singer-songwriter and actor, Monkee (d. 2012)
63 – Tracey Ullman, English-American actress
61 – Sean Hannity, American radio and television host
49 – Jason Behr, American actor
47 – Tiger Woods, golfer
38 – LeBron James, basketball star
30 – Carson Wentz, American football player