Fri 4-9

9 April 2010~~Week 15 of 2010: 99 days this year…266 days remain
‡ Scottish Proverbs 

Twelve highlanders and a bagpipe make a rebellion.

A day to come seems longer than a year that's gone.

• Holy Mackerel: On this day in 1927 ►Mae West is Arrested during her starring role in the play "sex" which she wrote, produced, directed and starred in on Broadway. She was prosecuted on morals charges and sentenced to 10 days in jail for public obscenity.

‡ Free Ramblings   

I really enjoy Mexican Food, so today our retirement group went to a local place with a salsa bar. I ate the some of the two hottest salsas while waiting for my order. About two hours later I realized that the while they were not that hot at the time, they were hot. I’m still suffering. But the food and conversation was worth every bit of the stomach distress. Mary’s daughter and baby grandson spent Easter with Mary and her son and daughter in Phoenix. This was the first time the three little ones had spent any real time together. She brought some great pictures. I helped Mary upload some pictures to her Facebook page after lunch. Cheryl is jumping through the necessary hoops to get some surgery so she won’t have to use as much insulin. Her son and his family had a great Easter. So cool that the kids are bilingual. The middle boy was in school for two weeks before the Head Start staff learned he spoke English. They talked to him in Spanish, he answered. One day Dad picked him up and of course was speaking English to his dad. The Head Start staff was amazed. They hadn’t heard any English from him, so assumed he only spoke Spanish. They found out he was just as good in English as he was in Spanish.

My next door neighbor’s house has been vacant for a week and nobody has been over there cleaning up or preparing it for new renters. Hmmm. They must be waiting for the snow in front of the house to melt. We share the largest pile that is still in the neighborhood…8’ X 4’ X 3’. I was surprised that Mary still had more snow in her back yard than I had. They still can’t get to the hot tub without going around the snow, tripling the walk to the hot tub. Hers, like mine, is basically a big block of ice.

We had some great weather today. We made it to 65° and while there was some wind, it wasn’t as cold as it has been. It was nice to be able to stand outside the restaurant while waiting for us to all gather. During the winter we all wait inside.

‡ A Quick Smile…from actual memos 

~ "Doing it right is no excuse for not meeting the schedule." (Plant Manager, Delco Corporation)

~ "No one will believe you solved this problem in one day! We've been working on it for months. Now go act busy for a few weeks and I'll let you know when it's time to tell them." (R&D supervisor, Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing/3M Corp.)

~ Quote from the Boss: "Teamwork is a lot of people doing what I say." (Marketing executive, Citrix Corporation)

~ "We know that communication is a problem, but the company is not going to discuss it with the employees." (Switching supervisor, AT&T Long Lines Division)

‡ Random Fact   

Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team his sophomore year.

‡ Puzzle   

State Mottos: Name the state with this motto

1. Liberty and prosperity

2  Friendship

3. Dum spiro spero Animis opibusque parati, While I breathe, I hope, Ready in soul and resource

4. We Montani semper liberi, Mountaineers are always free

5. Esse quam videri, To be, rather than to seem

‡ Side Show Stories   

BETHEL, Utah - An 8-year-old Utah boy who tried to help his parents by gassing up the car before they woke up crashed the vehicle about 100 yards from home, the family said. Jordan Winters said his parents were sleeping just before 9 a.m. Friday at their Bethel home and he decided to save them time during the day by taking the family's 2003 Dodge Caravan to a nearby gas station for fueling, WLWT-TV, Cincinnati reported Monday. Winters said he never exceeded 10 mph and was traveling about 5 mph when he crashed into a ditch. "I kept on headed toward the ditch, so I had to turn and then I crashed. I almost crashed into the telephone pole," the boy said. James Crouch, Winters' father, said police decided not to take any action. "He wanted to get gas in the van for us, be nice," Crouch said. "He was still in his jammies."

‡ Calendar Information   

• Observance Weeks in April•

4-10

Hate Week: taken from George Orwell’s 1984

Hilo, HI. Hula Festival: Cultural event honoring King David Kalakaua, culminates with the world’s largest hula competition

National Blue Ribbon Week: to raise awareness of the annual 3.2 million abused children

National Public Health Week

National Work Zone Safety Awareness Week

National Week of the Ocean: to raise awareness of the ocean’s role on our planet

5-10

Explore Your Career Options

5-11

National Networking Week

National Women's Nutrition Week

• 9 April Observances—US/UN/World •

Name Yourself Day

National Cherish An Antique Day

National Former Prisoner of War Recognition Day

National Geographic Bee (State Level)

Winston Churchill Day

• 9 April Observances—by country •

Bolivia : National Day (1952)

Canada: Vimy Ridge Day, commemorating the Battle of Vimy Ridge

Finland: Day of the Finnish Language

Latvia : Independence Day (1918)

Tunisia : Martyrs' Day

Philippines : Bataan Day (Day of Valor) (1942)

US, England : Churchill Day (1963)

•Number One Songs in…

1955 ►The Ballad of Davy Crockett - Bill Hayes

1963 ►He’s So Fine - The Chiffons

1971 ►Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me) - The Temptations

1979 ►I Will Survive - Gloria Gaynor

1987 ►Ocean Front Property - George Strait

• 9 April Happenings•

In The Arts

1667 ►1st public art exhibition (Palais Royal, Paris France)

In Athletics

1965 ►Major-league baseball played its first indoor game. President Lyndon B. Johnson attended the opening of the Astrodome in Houston, Texas

1993 ►Colorado Rockies 1st home game & 1st victory, 11-4 over Montréal Expos

In Business or Education

1833 ►1st tax-supported public library (Peterborough NH)

In Politics

1682 ►Robert La Salle claims lower Mississippi (Louisiana) for France

1772 ►Whites can now buy Indian land in Indian territories without government approval in New England.

1865 ►Robert E Lee & 26,765 troops, surrender to US Grant at Appomattox

1878 ►1st Lady Lucy Hayes begins egg rolling contest on White House lawn

1884 ►A woman, identified by local missionaries as Sacajawea, dies today in Wyoming. If this is the Sacajawea of the Lewis and Clark expedition, she would be almost 100 years old

1953 ►"TV Guide" publishes 1st issue

2003 ►Iraqis turn on symbols of former leader, pulling down a statue of Saddam Hussein

In Science/Religion

1816 ►African Methodist Episcopal Church organizes (Philadelphia PA)

1914 ►1st full color film shown "The World, The Flesh & the Devil" (London)

1959 ►NASA the National Aeronautics and Space Administration introduces America's first astronauts to the world, to take part in Project Mercury, America's first manned space program:

Scott Carpenter, L. Gordon Cooper Jr., John H. Glenn Jr., Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Walter Schirra Jr., Alan Shepard Jr., and Donald Slayton

• 9 April Births •

Artists, Writers, and Composers

Paul Krassner, 78, comic strip cartoonist (MAD Magazine)

Frank King, 1883, cartoonist: creator of Gasoline Alley cartoon strip

Carl Perkins, 1932, singer/songwriter (Blue Suede Shoes)

Athletes

Severiano (Seve) Ballesteros, 53, Pedrena, Spain, former golfer

Earl (Curly) Lambeau, 1898, NFL coach (Green Bay Packers)

Jacques Villeneueve, 39, race car driver, born St. Jean d’Iberville, QC, Canada

Entertainers

Ward Bond, 1903, actor (Quiet Man, Fort Apache, Seth-Wagon Train)

Michael Learned, 71, actress (“The Waltons”)

Cynthia Nixon, 44, actress (“Sex and the City,”

Dennis Quaid, 56, actor

Paul Robeson, 1898, singer: Ol’ Man River; actor

Business, Education Leaders

Hugh Hefner, 84, founder of Playboy

Political Leaders

Abraham A Ribicoff, 1910, Senator-CT

Scientists /Religious Leaders

Isambard Kingdom Brunel, 1806, designer of 1st transatlantic steamer

John Presper Eckert, 1919, co-inventor (1st electronic computer-ENIAC)

Charles Proteus Steinmetz, 1865, Germany, experiment with AC electricity

• 9 April Obits •

Francis Bacon, 1626, Viscount St Albans, statesman, pneumonia @ 65

Brook Benton, 1988, singer – (It’s Just a Matter of Time, Rainy Night in Georgia), bacterial meningitis @ 56.

Lorenzo de' Medici, 1492, Florentine statesman, @ 43

Simon Fraser (Lord Lovat), 1747, 12th baron Lovat Jacobite, last man beheaded in England, convicted of treason after Battle of Culledon. Final words: "It is glorious and honorable to die for one's country." @ 80.

Frank Lloyd Wright, 1959, US architect (Guggenheim Museum, New York), @ 89

Tammy Wynette [Virginia Wynette Pugh], 1998, country singer (Stand By Your Man), blot clot @ 55

‡ ANSWERS to puzzle

1. New Jersey: Liberty and prosperity

2. Texas: Friendship

3. South Carolina: Dum spiro spero Animis opibusque parati, While I breathe, I hope, Ready in soul and resource

4. West Virginia: Montani semper liberi, Mountaineers are always free

5. North Carolina: Esse quam videri, To be, rather than to seem

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