Sunday

~~~Free Ramblings
It’s Fair Weekend in Tuba. While I attended and helped students and staffs participate in every fair while I was working, I must say I don’t miss the traffic. I do miss the parade, the food booths, seeing lots of families I taught, and the Ye’ Bi Cheii. I may go back up there next year, but was glad to just talk to friends up there and find out that everything was going well and of course, traffic is worse than ever.

Our fall weather stays warm. We hit 75° today and it dropped to 35° last night. There was very little breeze. It was nice one of my neighbors, as today was one of their girl’s birthdays. They had a nice party out by the trees across the parking lot. The most fun was watching the little ones attempt to break the piñata. Each relative had a role in the breaking. Mom helped the little one with the stick get close without getting hit herself. A pre-teenage brother got his first change to be the one who swings the piñata from the rope. This was really a rite of passage, as the dad stood off to the side, giving up that role for the first time. Aunties and older children were busy trying to keep the screaming little ones away from the stick. As the kids reached a frenzy, a young man appeared from almost nowhere and busted the piñata as everyone dove for the candy. A great day for a birthday party.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~Random Facts
The strongest muscle in the body is the tongue
Fidgeting can burn about 350 calories a day.
Texas is the only state that permits residents to cast absentee ballots from space.

~~~Unusual News Story
ALAMO HEIGHTS, Texas – A Texas museum dedicated to a retired plumber’s artwork — decorated toilet seats —has been named the Wackiest Attraction in America by a popular Web site. TripAdvisor.com bestowed that designation on the Toilet Seat Museum, in the garage of Alamo Heights artist and retired plumber Barney Smith. The museum features 900 hand-carved, painted and decorated toilet seats for the viewing pleasure of the public,KSAT-TV, San Antonio, Texas, reported Thursday. Smith has toilet seats decorated as tributes to celebrities, famous historical scenes and even lids with relics attached from the space shuttle Challenger explosion and Nazi concentration camps.

~~~Before They Were Famous
Grammy Award-winning John Legend said he used to clean musical instruments & work at Sears.
In the 1970s, Jay Leno got his show biz start with a two-word part in an episode of the detective show Holmes & Yoyo.
David Letterman was a stock boy at Atlas grocery store in Indianapolis. He also was a weatherman on the local news in Indianapolis.
Olympic medalist Carl Lewis once worked at McDonald's.
Jerry Lewis was once a bell boy.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~October Month Long Observances

Birthstone: Opal Birth flower: calendula
Adopt A Shelter Animal Month ~ Apple Month ~ Celebrate the Bilingual Child Month ~ Domestic Violence Awareness Month ~ Emotional Intelligence Month ~ Gay & Lesbian History Month ~ Halloween Safety Month ~ Month of Free Thought ~ Nat’l Arts and Humanities Month ~ Nat’l Book Month ~ Nat’l Cyber Safety Awareness Month ~ Nat’l Popcorn Poppin’ Month ~ Nat’l Sarcastic Awareness Month ~ Photographer Appreciation Month ~ Squirrel Awareness Month ~ Vegetarian Month

~~~Week of 17 Oct
Food & Drug Interaction Education and Awareness Week
Teen Read Week
Nat’l Chemistry Week
Nat’l Character Counts Week
Nat’l Forest Products Week
Nat’l School Bus Safety Week


~~~18 OCT Observances
291 days so far this year…74 days remain in 2009
World Menopause Day
Nat’l Chocolate Cupcake Day
Alaska—Alaska Day (1867 switched from Russia to US flag)

~~~Births on this day
~ The ARTS
1877__Florence Dahl Walrath humanitarian, founded Cradle society

1915__Victor Sen Yung SF Calif, actor (Bonanza)
1922__Little Orphan Annie comic strip character
1926__Chuck Berry St Louis, rocker
1926__George C Scott Wise Va, actor
1934__Inger Stevens Stockholm Sweden, actress (Katy-Farmer's Daughter)
1947__Laura Nyro Bronx, singer/songwriter
1948__Ntozake Shange (Paulette Williams) poet, playwright
1951__Pam Dawber Detroit, actress (Mindy-Mork & Mindy)
1961__Wynton Marsalis New Orleans La, jazz trumpeter

~ATHLETICS
1939__Mike Ditka Pro & College Football Hall of Famer
1956__Martina Navratilova Prague Czech, tennis
1958__Thomas Hearns Heavyweight Boxing Champ

~POLITICS/BUSINESS/EDUCATION
1919__Pierre Elliot Trudeau (L) 15th Canadian PM
1927__Katherine Fanning Chicago, editor (Christian Science Monitor)
1935__John B Coleman Boston, hotel magnate (Ritz Carlton)
1939__Lee Harvey Oswald JFK assassin

~~~In Remembrance–
1541__Margaret Tudor, Queen of Scotland @ 52 stoke
1911__Alfred Binet, French psychologist IQ test @ 54
1931__Thomas Edison, American inventor @ 84
1982__Bess Truman former 1st lady @ 97

~~~Historical Events on this day
1648__1st US labor organization forms (Boston Shoemakers)
1767__The Mason-Dixon Line is established.
1898__American troops raise the U.S. flag over Puerto Rico.

1922__British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) established
1954__Texas Instruments sells first commercially successful transistor radio, the Regency TR-1
1967__Walt Disney's "Jungle Book" is released
1968__Circus Circus opens in Las Vegas

~ Holy Mackerel
1776__In a NY bar decorated with bird tail, customer orders "cock tail"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jeopardy Categories Quiz
(these answers all relate to the idea of water)
1. This American architect is known for the House of Falling Water .
2. La Mer or The Sea is an impressionistic composition by this 19th Century French musician.
3. This film by Elia Kazan starred Eva Marie Saint and Marlon Brando, who "Coulda been a contenda."
4. This composer of The Messiah is also known for his collection Water Music.
5. This Renaissance painter is known for his painting of Venus arising from the sea.
^
^
^
^
Scroll down for answers
^
^
^
^
^
^
^
^
^
1. Answers:
2. Who is Frank Lloyd Wright?
3. Who Is Claude Debussy?
4. What is “On the Waterfront”?
5. Who is Georg Frideric Handel?
6. Who is Sandro Botticelli?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~