Two Entertainment Icons Lost

A strange news day to be sure. Two icons of different eras passed. Early in the day, Farrah Fawcett lost her long battle with cancer. Just as that was sinking in, the news broke that Michael Jackson passed. The 24/7 news channels have gone into overdrive over Michael’s death. Both were icons. Jackson’s death was a surprise, Fawcett’s was not. I guess that’s how death is. Many seem to mourn longer and louder when someone passes without being ill. No time to prepare. No time to reflect. Sad, because a life gone is just that…gone. Gone to another plane, or just gone. Whichever, gone from this world.

Clouds all day. Sunrise brought us the reminder that there are several prescribed burns in the area. The whole East Flagstaff area was in a heavy haze. The breeze must have finally blown that away. Then the clouds came in, spit a tiny bit of rain, and stayed, unable to do anymore. The evening’s cool breeze has helped drop the high of 80° down to a much nicer 62°.

I attempted to help my friend Martha buy a digital camera. She takes very good pictures and puts them in her many newsletters. She has been having trouble finding a place to develop her film lately. She is not a technocrat, so this was a really big deal. We found a nice one, at a reasonable price, that appeared fairly easy to use. Got the camera running, took some pics, downloaded the CD that came with the camera onto her laptop. Then we looked for the cord that connects the camera to the computer. Not in the box. It used the same one my cell phone uses, so we were even able to download some pics. She went back to the store, only to find that it would be several weeks to get the cord. Smartly, she just got her money back after about an hour of hassles. The problem is, she sees it as just another sign that technology is too complicated for her. She certainly has had more than her share of techno problems. I do understand her frustration. It’s just sad that she will not be looking for another camera for some time. This really wasn’t a techno problem; it was some salesperson’s stupidity or some glitch from the camera people. I believe that some salesperson just took the cord out of the box and lost it, or gave it to some other customer and put the box back on the shelf. Whatever caused the problem, it simply further added to her “technology bad” version of reality.
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Random Fact
The ashes of the average cremated person weigh nine pounds.

June is…

Adopt a Shelter Cat Month…Effective Communications Month…Gay & Lesbian Pride Month [National GLBT Month]…Great Outdoors Month…National Accordion Awareness Month…Rebuild Your Life Month…National Candy Month

Week of June 25
National Watermelon Seed Spitting Week

June 26—177 days so far this year…188 days remain in 2009

Take your Dog to Work Day
National Ugly Dog Day
International Day in Support of Torture Victims
International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking
*Madagascar: Independence Day
*Thailand: Sunthorn Phu Day (Thailand's best-known poet. His most popular single work is the 30,000-line epic Phra Aphai Mani)

BIRTHS ON THIS DAY…
1702
Dr Philip Doddridge England, nonconformist clergyman
1819
Abner Doubleday credited with inventing American baseball
1887
Anthony G de Rothschild Britain, philanthropist
1892
Pearl S Buck China, author (Good Earth-Nobel 1938)
1904
Peter Lorre actor (M, Casablanca, Beast with 5 Fingers)
1913
Maurice Wilkes inventor (stored program concept for computers)
1914
Babe (Mildred) Didrikson Zaharias
“The outstanding female athlete of the first half-century.”
1922
Frances Rafferty Sioux City Iowa, actress (December Bride)
1933
Noriyuki "Pat" Morita Calif, actor (Happy Days, Karate Kid)
1970
Chris O’Donnell actor

IT HAPPENED ON THIS DAY…

1483
In a royal drama later told by Shakespeare, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, takes the crown of England as Richard III, following the death of King Edward IV and the imprisonment of the young Edward V.
1797
Charles Newbold patents 1st cast-iron plow. He can't sell it to farmers, though, they fear effects of iron on soil!
1819
The bicycle was patented by W.K. Clarkson, Jr. of New York City
1870
In Atlantic City, N.J., the world's first ocean side boardwalk is completed.
1900
Dr Walter Reed begins research that beats Yellow Fever
1906
The first French Grand Prix the first race of it's kind to be held anywhere was staged in Le Mans
1919
1st issue of NY Daily News published
1934
W E B Du Bois resigns position at NAACP
1945
The United Nations charter is signed by 50 countries in San Francisco after two months of negotiations
1959
Queen Elizabeth & Pres Eisenhower open the St Lawrence Seaway
1963
Kennedy visits W Berlin "Ich bin ein Berliner" (I am a Berliner)
1974
At a Marsh supermarket in Troy, Ohio, a consumer purchased a package of Wrigley's chewing gum. And for the first time, a laser beam in an NCR checkout terminal with a bar code reader read a UPC bar code symbol on the package and automatically rang up the purchase.

Word Puzzle from NPR Sunday Puzzler…1987

Every answer below is a familiar two word phrase that contains the consecutive letters L-E-G with the first word ending with L-E and the second word beginning with G

EX: Automobile lubricant Answer: Axel grease

1. Something you chew and blow
2. A kind of bread made with unprocessed ingrediants
3. Where a war is fought
4. Kids climb on it in a playground
5. Stoves, washers, and big machines, from an economist’s standpoint
6. Bill Clinton or George Bush, scholastically speaking
7. Device that shoots tiny metal fasteners
8. She play Bea Arthur’s mother on “The Golden Girls”
9. Garden product brand that helps plants get larger
10. Dingy and off-white, like clothes that aren’t washed well
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Answers:
1. Bubble gim
2. Whole grain
3. Battle ground
4. Jungle gym
5. Durable goods
6. Yale Graduate
7. Staple gun
8. Estelle Getty
9. Miracle Gro
10. Tattletale grey
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