Monday

Here we are at the end of August, and I guess it’s time to get ready for September. This has been one of the warmest, no--hottest, Augusts that Flagstaff has had in quite a while. Temperatures were in the 90’s for many days. Remember please we are about 7000’ above sea level. The average temperature for Flagstaff in August is 79.9°. The monsoons seem to have helped cool us down a lot of days, but it looks like August did not bring the total amount of rain we wanted or needed. This month we got 0.74” of rain. Our normal rainfall for August is 2.89”—our wettest month. I do believe that I got more than ¾” of rain in August, but certainly not anywhere near the average.

A number of events in the past few months is changing my view on Health Care…sort of. Many have made the change a political issue. It is not a political issue, it is a moral issue. It is that those with money, jobs and health insurance get treatment, those who don’t have these things do not get the same care. I was reminded of my buying into the political issue as I listened to the many, many sound bites of Ted Kennedy. That is when I realized Obama’s big mistake on Health Care Reform. He let it become and remain a political issue, not a moral issue. I heard a great interview with Bill Moyers this weekend that really laid it out. Thank you to HBO and Real Time. We have always allowed insurance companies and the pharmaceutical industry and many hospitals to be ‘for profit’ entities. This means you have to have money, and a lot of it, to get health care. Those with money have to pay for those who don’t have money. Yes, everyone has to be served in emergency rooms. But the charges are based on some formula that allows them to make a profit, and charge accordingly. They have figured out an approximate percentage of patients who don’t have coverage so they increase the costs for those who do.

How can the US allow this to continue? The health of our citizens should not be for sale. We are not in the top 30 countries of the world for longevity. We are not in the top 30 countries of the world for low health care costs. We are not in the top 30 countries for successful health care. We need to have reform. We need to have better health care in this country. We all need to learn the facts. We need to remember…’life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness’ is for every citizen. It took a long time to let women vote. Longer to let Native Americans vote. I took almost 100 years to end slavery and another 100 years to allow all Blacks the right to vote and attend schools of their choice and drink water from public water fountains. It’s been 50 years since Truman begna the call for reform in Health Care. We are almost there. Let our legacy be that we are the ones who gave all of our citizens the freedom of choice for health care, based on health needs and not on politics.
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Random Facts…

Real diamonds can be made from peanut butter!

Crazy Stuff in the News…

Bizarre Book Titles
How to Avoid Huge Ships by John W. Trimmer
Scouts in Bondage by Michael Bell
Be Bold with Bananas by Crescent Books
Fancy Coffins to Make Yourself by Dale L. Power
The Flat-Footed Flies of Europe by Peter J. Chandler
101 Uses for an Old Farm Tractor by Michael Dregni
Across Europe by Kangaroo by Joseph R. Barry

September Month Long Observances

Apple Month…Be Kind to Editors & Writers Month…Children’s Good Manners Month…International People Skills Month…International Strategic Thinking Month…National Honey Month…National Preparedness Month…Pleasure Your Mate Month…Healthy Aging Month…National Hispanic Heritage Month…

Week of 1 Sep…

Self-University Week [to increase lifelong learning]—ideas at end of this blog

1 Sep Observances…

244 days so far this year…121 days remain in 2009
National Cherry Popover Day
*Australia / New Zealand—1st Day of Spring
*Russia—Knowledge Day
*Singapore—Teacher’s Day
*Slovakia—Constitution Day--1992
*Uzbekistan—Independence Day—From USSR-1991
*Libya—Revolution Day—1969
*Qatar—Independence Day—1971—From UK

BIRTHS ON THIS DAY…

…ARTS…
1849….. Elizabeth Harrison US, educator (Natl Congress of Parents & Teachers)
1875….. Edgar Rice Burroughs novelist (Tarzan, Mars Saga)

1922….. Yvonne De Carlo (Peggy Yvonne Middleton) Vancouver BC, actress (10 Commandments, Munsters)
1931 ….. Boxcar Willie (Lecil Martin) ‘The Singing Hobo’: songwriter, singer
1933….. Conway Twitty [Harold Jenkins], Miss, country singer
1938….. George Maharis Astoria NY, actor (Buz-Route 66)
1939….. Lily Tomlin Detroit, comedienne/actress
1957….. Gloria Estefan Cuba, singer

…ATHLETICS…
1923….. Rocky Marciano (Rocco Marchegiano) heavyweight champion boxer (1952-56)

…POLITICS…
1864….. Sir Roger David Casement Ireland, martyr (IRA)
1907….. Walter Reuther labor leader/president of UAW & CIO
1933….. Ann Richards (Gov-Tx)

…SCIENCE…
1848 – Auguste-Henri Forel, Swiss entomologist (d. 1931)
1939 Heinrich Messner Austria, downhill skier (Olympic-bronze-1972)



Events on this day…

1666….. Great London Fire begins in Pudding Lane. 80% of London is destroyed

1807….. Aaron Burr acquitted of charges of plotting to set up an empire
1859….. RC Carrington & R Hodgson make 1st observation of solar flare
1866….. Manuelito and twenty-three of his Navajo followers surrender to the army at Fort Wingate.
1878….. 1st female telephone operator starts work (Emma Nutt in Boston)

1905….. Alberta & Saskatchewan become 8th & 9th Canadian provinces
1914….. St Petersburg, Russia changes name to Petrograd
1922….. The first daily news program on radio
1941….. Yellow star becomes obligatory for Jews in the Reich to wear
1948….. UN's World Health Organization forms
1972….. Bobby Fischer (US) defeats Boris Spassky (USSR) for world chess title
1975….. Gunsmoke goes off the air
1983….. Soviet jet fighters shoot down a Korean Airlines passenger flight in Russian airspace killing 269 passengers and crew members.
1989….. New car safety legislation required all newly manufactured cars to install an air bag on the driver's side.

Holy Mackerel….
1928….. At 1:00 p.m. on 1st September 1928 groups of Boy Scouts placed approximately 2,400 concrete markers at sites along the Lincoln Highway [New York to California] to officially mark and dedicate it to the memory of Abraham Lincoln.

Bookhooks.com

*A*B*C* words
Each answer has the letters A, B, and C in order. Other letters may be in between.
Example: kidnap Answer abduct

1. calculator
2. textile
3. failure to be present
4. exercise type
5. hot sauce
6. a muscle or a seizer
7. patient vehicle
8. tuna-type
9. like antennas or fables
10. more than enough
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Answers:
1. abacus
2. fabric
3. absence
4. aerobic
5. tabasco
6. abductor
7. ambulance
8. albacore
9. parabolic
10. abundance
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10 Lifelong Learning Ideas

• Look up a new word every morning and figure out three ways to use it during the day.
• Listen to audio books or language tapes while you drive.
• Attend an open meeting or public forum each noon hour or evening for a week.
• Sign up for a night course, workshop, or seminar.
• Take photos of ten things (places, objects, people) that best symbolize who you are. Then take ten more of things that represent your dreams. (Use a digital camera) Put the photos together in an album , montage or a web page.
• Go to a foreign movie--or to a foreign country, if you can afford it.
• Visit a museum or gallery.
• Watch an hour of public television each night instead of cable.
• Practice the tutorials for a new piece of computer software.
• Memorize a poem.
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