HOT

The airport was only 92° today. My deck was 101°. Ah, summer in mountain country. Phoenix had an ‘extreme heat advisory’ and an ‘air quality alert’. Some areas of the Valley would probably reach 120° and people were asked to not drive cars or run any equipment that has a gas engine. If the heat won’t kill you, the pollution will. I’ll take the mountain heat, thank you very much.

Walter Cronkite passed today. I grew up with his nightly news. Back then, the print journalists were moving to TV, as were some radio journalists. Back then we got the news. Now we have so many agenda driven talking heads that one has to be very wary of anything we hear or see on the news. Journalism used to be “the collecting, writing, editing, and presenting of news or news articles in newspapers and magazines and in radio and television broadcasts.” So many times today journalism is the collecting and editorializing of news or news articles in newspapers and magazines and in radio and television broadcasts. Seldom does a TV station run a piece that starts out with ‘This is an Editorial’. Yet today, hard news is sprinkled with fluff and so many times the hard news is dummy-downed with non-announced editoritals. A sad passing indeed.

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Random Fact
Only 6% of the autographs in circulation from members of the Beatles are estimated to be real.

July is…

…Air Conditioning Appreciation Month…Blueberries Month…Cell Phone Courtesy Month…Family Reunion Month…Herbal/Prescription Awareness Month…Nat’l Doghouse Repair Month…Nat’l Grilling, Nat’l Hot Dog, Nat’l Horseradish, and Nat’l Ice Cream Month…Smart Irrigation Month…Social Wellness Month…Tour de France Month…Women’s Motorcycle Month…

Week of July 18
Restless Leg Syndrome Education & Awareness Week

July 18—199 days so far this year…168 days remain in 2009

Cow Appreciation Day
Toss away the ‘could haves’ and ‘should haves’ Day
*Uruguay: Constitution Day [1951]
*Spain: Labor Day
Northern AZ Celtic Festival Day

BIRTHS ON THIS DAY…
1720
Gilbert White "father of British naturalists"
1796
Feargus O'Connor County Cork, leader of the English Chartists
1811
William Makepeace Thackeray England, Victorian novelist (Vanity Fair)
1890
Charles Wilson Pres of General Motors (1940-53)/Sec of Def (1953-57)
1906
S.I. Hayakawa (Sen-R-CA) educator (Language in Action)
1909
Andrei Gromyko USSR, diplomat/USSR President
1909
Harriet Nelson (Peggy Lou Snyder)Des Moines, actress (Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet)
1910
Red (Richard) Skelton comedian (Clem Kadiddlehopper, Freddie the Freeloader)
1911
Hume Cronyn London Ontario, actor (World According to Garp, Cocoon)
1918
Nelson Mandela Qunu South Africa, political prisoner (ANC)
1921
John H Glenn Jr Cambridge Ohio, Col USMC astronaut
1940
James Brolin (Bruderlin) LA Calif, actor
1941
Martha Reeves Detroit Mich, singer (& the Vandellas-Dancing in St)
1954
Ricky Skaggs singer

IT HAPPENED ON THIS DAY…
64
Great Fire of Rome begins (Nero fiddles)
1872
Britain introduces secret ballot voting
1925
Nazi leader Adolf Hitler publishes the first volume of his personal manifesto, Mein Kampf
1936
Spanish Civil War begins, Gen Francisco Franco led uprising
1959
1st black to win a major golf tournament (William Wright) @ Wellshire Golf Course, Denver.
1966
Carl Sagan turns 1 billion seconds old
1969
A car driven by Senator Edward "Ted" Kennedy plunged off a narrow wooden bridge
1976
The first perfect 10 ever recorded in Olympic gymnastics was achieved up by Romania's 4-foot-11, 88-pound Nadia Comaneci on the women's uneven parallel bars.
1978
Egyptian & Israeli officials begin 2 days of talks

Word Puzzle from NPR Sunday Puzzler…1987

The answer to the first clue in each pair below is a compound word or two word phrase that ends in UP. Change the UP to DOWN and you’ll have a new compound word or a common two-word phrase that answers the second clue.

EX: Playboy feature / To find specifically
Answers: pin-up / pin down

1. To improve slightly / Football score
2. Event on a cattle range / Be conservative in estimating
3. Appear, as in an event / Final battle
4. Start to laugh hard / Police action against criminals
5. Robbery / To have, as a job
6. Kind of comedian / To quit, as during a confrontation
7. Thorough change in management / Extortion as by blackmail
8. Put on fancy clothes / To sharply criticize
9. Divorce / Reason to call or a tow truck
10. Certain exercise / Kind of strike
• Bonus: Prankster / Fell, as a tree

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Answers:
1. Touch up / touchdown
2. Roundup / round down
3. Show up / showdown
4. Crack up / crack down
5. Holdup / hold down
6. Stand-up / stand down
7. Shakeup / shakedown
8. Dress up / dress down
9. Breakup / breakdown
10. Sit-up / sit-down
* Bonus: Cutup/ cut down
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