Saturday

♣ 6 March 2010--Week 9 of 2010: 65 days this year…300 remain ♣

» Two Quotes to think about…Today «

"If you make a mistake, immediately fix it to the best of your ability."

~unknown

“Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.”

~Mark Twain [Samuel Clemens](1835-1910); Author, Humorist

» Free Ramblings «

What a great day we had here in Flagstaff. Last night’s storm did bring us down to 14° last night, but we made it to 47° fairly quickly today. Blue skies with high wispy clouds and very little breeze made it a nice day to be out and about. The next storm is now due late Sunday, instead of the Saturday that was predicted. So I am hoping for a nice weekend. There is a St. Patty’s Day parade in Sedona tomorrow, and while I am not going, I don’t want my bag piping friends to get wet or blown away. They all got drenched at the Phoenix games and need a break.

AZ sadly made national news today. There was a tour bus crash, near Phoenix. The tour group was coming from Mexico to LA through Phoenix. What I don’t get is how this tour bus got through the border in the first place. Turns out the company has a record—in AZ and five other states for driving vehicles that cannot pass a safety inspection. The company has been involved in accidents in the states recently and even had a driver that had no license. So what exactly is happening at the border? Don’t these border guards check to see if they have insurance? They don’t. Don’t they check to insure that the bus company has a permit to operate in the states? They don’t. The six Mexican Nationals who died, and the 16 who were seriously injured had no idea that they were traveling with a bus company that had such a poor safety record. After going through customs in Nogales, NYC, London, Glasgow, Cairo, Johannesburg, and DC I have always wondered how much is ‘show’ and how much is ‘necessary’. I have gone through some checkpoints where the stamper was very nice and welcoming. I have gone through checkpoints where the stamper was a little too impressed with themselves and the power they had. I held up the line at one checkpoint because I didn’t know the exact street address of the hotel where we were staying. Her boss intervened and let me through. Whoever was at the checkpoint when this bus went through the checkpoint, around 3am, seems to have messed up. Sure sounds to me like our secure border was badly broken. If a bus with this history can legally cross into our state, why have we spent all this money on a fence? I really can’t believe a bus with this history was not prevented from entering our state. It certainly was not the tourists fault and they should not have died.

»Random Fact: «

North Carolina molecular scientist Robert Bohannon has developed Buzz Donuts and Buzzed Bagels- caffeinated donuts and bagels. They contain the caffeine equivalent of two cups of coffee.

»Side Show Stories—«

SOUTH BEND, Ind. - Indiana police said they arrested an alleged drunk driver who drove away from a gas station with the nozzle and hose still attached to his vehicle. St. Joseph County police said they received calls Monday night about a truck on westbound U.S. 20/U.S. 31 with a gas station hose dangling from the side and striking passing vehicles, the South Bend (Ind.) Tribune reported. Officers said the driver, a 46-year-old South Bend man, smelled of alcohol when he was pulled over on Indiana 2 and failed several field sobriety tests before being booked into the St. Joseph County Jail. Police said his blood alcohol content was measured at 0.13 at the jail, well over the 0.08 legal limit for driving. The man told police he had recently purchased gas from a Speedway station. The hose and nozzle were returned to the business.

§ Puzzle §

Word Boxes are like miniature crossword puzzles, except that each word is filled in across AND down the grid. That is, the answer to 1 across is the same word as the answer to 1 down; 2 across is the same as 2 down; etc. Can you solve these Word Boxes? To solve: draw a square that has 5 X 5 sections.

1 joint (HINT: E - - - -)

2 genus of coniferous trees (HINT: - A - - -)

3 hold firm (HINT: - - A - -)

4 happen (HINT: - - - U -)

5 use this word to ask someone's location (HINT: - - - - E)

§ Calendar Information §

• March’s Month Long Observances •

BIRTHSTONE: aquamarine and bloodstone (courage) FLOWER: Narcissus [daffodil, jonquil] (vanity)

National Cheerleading Safety Month • National Clean Up Your IRS Act Month • National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month • National Craft Month • National Ethics Awareness Month •National Eye Donor Month • National Frozen Food Month • National Multiple Sclerosis Education & Awareness Month •National Kidney Month• National Nutrition Month • National Social Work Month • National Umbrella Month • National Women's History Month • Optimism Month • Play The Recorder Month • Poison Prevention Awareness Month • Red Cross Month • Save Your Vision Month • Sing With Your Child Month • Small Press Month •Spiritual Wellness Month • Women's History Month • Workplace Eye Health and Safety Month • Youth Art Month

• Observance Weeks in March•

1-7: National Cheerleading Week

     • National Ghostwriters Week

     • National Write A Letter of Appreciation Week

     • National Procrastination Week

     • Return The Borrowed Books Week

     • Universal Human Beings Week

     • Yo-Yo and Skill Toys Week

6-21: Iditarod Race

• 4 March Observances—US/UN/World •

U.S. Snowshoe Day

National Frozen Food Day

Stoneware Pottery Appreciation Day

Texas: Alamo Day ( formerly known as Mission San Antonio de Valero) is owned by the DRT: Daughters of the Republic of Texas and is not a state or nationally owned site

•4 March Observances—by country •

Ghana (Gold Coast): Independence Day, from Britain in 1957

Guam : Magellan Day/Discovery Day (1521)

Territory of Norfolk Island, Australia: since1788--Foundation Day, the founding of Norfolk Island

§ Number One Songs in…

1945 •Accentuate the Positive - Johnny Mercer

1953 •Don’t Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes - Perry Como

1961 •Pony Time - Chubby Checker

1969 •Everyday People - Sly & The Family Stone

1977 •Fly like an Eagle - Steve Miller

1985 •Can’t Fight This Feeling - REO Speedwagon

• Holy Mackerel: 1985 •Mexican authorities find body of US drug agent Enrique C Salaazar: Red Ribbon Week hero
• Born on this day •

     …The Arts

Authors, Artists and Composers

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (Moulton), 1806, poet

Cyrano de Bergerac, 1619, dramatist (A Voyage to the Moon)

Michelangelo (de Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni),1475, painter/sculptor/architect(David, Pièta)

Anna Claypoole Peale, 1791, painted miniatures

Entertainers in Cinema, Music, Theater, and TV

Tom Arnold, 51, actor (“Roseanne,” McHale’s Navy, True Lies)

Aaron Lufkin Dennison, 1812, father of American watch making

Dave Gilmour, 66, singer, guitarist (Pink Floyd)

Stewart Granger, 1913, actor

Merle Haggard, 73, country singer

D.L. Hughley, 47, comedian, actor

Ed McMahon, 1923, Detroit MI, TV host (Johnny Carson Show, Star Search)

Rob Reiner, 63, actor (“All in the Family”), director

Mary Wilson, 66, vocalist (Supremes)

     …Athletes

Dick Fosbury, 63, high jumper (Olympics-gold-1968)

Shaquille Rashan O’Neal, 38, basketball player (Magic, Lakers, Suns)

Willie (Wilver Dornel) Stargell, 1940, outfielder/1st baseman (Pirates)

     …Business, Education

Alan Greenspan, 84, economist, former Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board

     …Politics

Marion S Barry, 74, Mayor-Democrat-DC

     …Science/Religion

(Leroy) Gordon Cooper, 1927, U.S. astronaut

Joseph von Fraunhofer, 1787, German physicist (studied Sun's spectrum)

•Today’s Obits •

Davy Crockett, 1836, frontiersmen (Alamo), killed in battle @ 49

William Hopper, 1970, actor (Paul Drake-Perry Mason), stroke @ 55

Georgia O’ Keefe,1986, artist, @ 98

Ayn Rand, 1982, author-philosopher (The Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged), @ 77

Max Schubert, 1994, winemaker, @ 89

John Philip Sousa, 1932, US composer (Stars & Stripes Forever), @ 77

•What Happened on this Day •

     …The Arts

1831 •Edgar Allen Poe removed from West Point military academy

     …Athletics

1964 •Elijah Muhammad renames Cassius Clay, Muhammad Ali

     …Business, Education

1978 •Hustler publisher Larry Flynt shot & crippled by a sniper in Georgia

      …Politics

1521 •Magellan discovers Guam

1857 •Dred Scott Decision: Supreme Court rules slaves cannot be citizens

1902 •Census Bureau forms

1951 •The trial of suspected spies Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were indicted for conspiring to obtain national defense secrets for the Soviets starts in New York.

1981 •Walter Cronkite, the dean of American television newscasters, said “And that’s the way it is” for the final time
1998 •1st time the British flag is flown over Buckingham Palace

     …Science/Religion

1899 – Bayer registers aspirin as a trademark.

2006 – South Dakota Governor Mike Rounds signs legislation banning most abortions in the state.

§ANSWERS to puzzle §

ELBOW

LARCH

BRACE

OCCUR

WHERE

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