Saturday 4-3

3 April 2010~~Week 14 of 2010: 93 days this year…272 days remain

‡ Scottish Proverbs 

Money is flat and was meant to be piled up.

A light purse makes a heavy heart.

• Holy Mackerel: On this day in 1860 ►The Pony Express a new faster mail service using riders on a horseback relay instead of the traditional stagecoaches begins service between St. Joseph, Mo., and Sacramento, Calif. The Pony Express reduced the time for mail to travel from the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to around ten days. After only 1 year in March 1861 after suffering large losses and not gaining the mail contract The Pony Express Company ceased trading.

‡ Free Ramblings   

Holy Week for Christians is drawing to a close. I have always been enticed by the pageantry of this time of year. I was raised Episcopalian, or as my mom said ‘back-door Catholic’. We always had our services in English, didn’t HAVE to go to confession, Knelt, stood, sat at various times during the Communion service. We recognized that the Pope was a good man, but certainly not infallible. For Holy days our church had incense, lots of candles, some bells, and the priest wore very colorful garb. In my youth we hung out with a family that was catholic and very good friends. My mom, at one time, had been nearly engaged to marry the husband. He was the man who introduced my mother and father. Their family consisted of eight kids, several of whom were adopted. One of the girls carries my mother’s name. My mother was ‘Beryl’, hardly a common name. Anyway, on Good Friday Beryl and Marie would load up the ten kids and we would spend much of the day visiting the various Catholic churches throughout the Denver area. We would enter each church or cathedral and say a prayer. I was always more interested in the beauty of the church, the stained glass windows, the huge wooden alters, and the quiet, Gothic organ music that was being played by an organist for Good Friday. We did this for years and stopped about the time I was 12. Flagstaff does have some old churches, but I don’t celebrate Good Friday by doing the traveling to churches things. The hypocrisy of so many churches and their congregations has turned me off to that kind of organized religion, but I will always have fond memories of those Good Friday excursions.

My mind has gotten quite a case of Spring Fever. Now I just have to wait for the rest of the world to have Spring. I want to spend more time outside, but don’t enjoy the wind and snow. I want to move all the furniture into a new set up in my house. I just haven’t figured out how I want to change it. I have so much stuff, I really just need to get rid of some of it. However, each ‘thing’ has such good memories I haven’t been able to part with it. Of course, something will hit me one of these days and I will be able to make the change. I stopped by Home Depot today and while we still have snow on the ground, their garden center is filled with spring flowers. This didn’t help my spring fever one bit. I know it is way too early for planting, but I sure don’t want to plant now and watch them freeze.

We did have a nice day today. We made it to 47° and there was very little wind. I am ready for much warmer temperatures, the ability to open the house and have fresh mountain air in the house.

‡ A Quick Smile   

A young man excitedly tells his mother he's fallen in love and going to get married. He says, "Just for fun, Ma, I'm going to bring over 3 women and you try and guess which one I'm going to marry."

The mother agrees.

The next day, he brings three beautiful women into the house and sits them down on the couch and they chat for a while. He then says, "Okay, Ma, guess which one I'm going to marry."

She immediately replies, "The one in the middle."

"That's amazing, Ma. You're right. How did you know?"

"I don't like her."

‡ Random Fact   

The Great Pyramid at Giza in Egypt, constructed around 2500 B.C., was the tallest building in the world until the Eiffel Tower was erected in 1889.

‡ Puzzle   

State Mottos: Name the state with this motto

1 North to the future

2 Ad astra per aspera: To the stars through difficulties

3 By valor and arms

4 Crescit eundo: It grows as it goes

5 Hope

‡ Side Show Stories   

KINGSPORT, Tenn. - Police in Kingston, Tenn., said a man charged with running naked through a grocery story told officers he did it because he was bored. A police report said Daniel Lee, 22, of Church Hill, admitted to walking into the IGA grocery store Friday about 9 p.m. "wearing only a rubber mask," The Kingsport Times-News reported Tuesday. Lee fled the store but employees were able to detain his alleged accomplice, Katelyn Trent, 18, who said she was his girlfriend. The suspect was tracked to a nearby Hardee's, where employees said he came inside dressed in only an orange hoodie and started begging for clothes before hiding in a bathroom. "Daniel advised me that he did run through the IGA nude because he was bored and didn't have anything to do," an officer wrote in the report. Lee was charged with indecent exposure and booked into the Kingsport jail. No charges had been filed against Trent.

‡ Calendar Information   

• Observance Weeks in April•

1-7

International Pooper-Scooper Week

Laugh at Work Week

Golden Rule Week

Medication Safety Week

Testicular Cancer Awareness Week

2-4

Alcohol-Free Weekend

• 1 April Observances—US/UN/World •

Don't Go To Work Unless It's Fun Day

Pony Express Day

Tangible Karma Day

New York: Tweed Day: for birthday of William March “Boss” Tweed, corrupt political boss

•3 April Observances—by country •

Scotland: Edinburgh International Science Festival

•Number One Songs in…

1949 ►Cruising Down the River - The Russ Morgan Orchestra

1957 ►Little Darlin’ - The Diamonds

1965 ►Stop! In the Name of Love - The Supremes

1973 ►Killing Me Softly with His Song - Roberta Flack

1981 ►Texas Women - Hank Williams, Jr.

•3 April Happenings•

In The Arts

1942 ►People Are Funny was first heard this day on NBC radio Art Linkletter took over the popular program in 1943

1953 ►TV Guide was published for the first time

In Athletics

1923 ►2 "Black Sox" sue White Sox (unsuccessfully) for back salary

1948 ►1st US figure skating championships held
In Business or Education

1776 ►Harvard College conferred the first honorary Doctor of Laws degree to George Washington

1848 ►Thomas Douglas becomes 1st San Francisco public teacher

In Politics

1790 ►Revenue Marine Service (US Coast Guard), created

1918 ►House of Representatives accepts American Creed written by William Tyler

I believe in the United States of America, as a government of the people, by the people, for the people; whose just powers are derived from the consent of the governed; a democracy in a republic; a sovereign Nation of many sovereign States; a perfect union, one and inseparable; established upon those principles of freedom, equality, justice, and humanity for which American patriots sacrificed their lives and fortunes.

I therefore believe it is my duty to my country to love it, to support its Constitution, to obey its laws, to respect its flag, and to defend it against all enemies.

1968 ►Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "mountaintop" speech to a rally of striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Tenn

1996 ►Theodore John Kaczynski is arrested by the FBI accused of being the Unabomber

In Science/Religion

1829 ►James Carrington of Wallingford, CT patented the coffee mill

1910 ►Highest mountain in North America, Alaska's Mount McKinley climbed

1933 ►1st airplane flight over Mount Everest

1974 ►148 tornadoes hit North America from Georgia to Canada within 16 hours

• 3 April Births •

Artists and Composers

Don Gibson, 1928 , songwriter: I Can’t Stop Loving You, singer: Oh Lonesome Me

George Herbert, 1593, English metaphysical poet (5 Mystical Songs)

Washington Irving, 1783, American writer (Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Rip Van Winkle)

Athletes

Picabo Street, 39, Olympic skier

Entertainers

Alec Baldwin, 52, actor (“30 Rock

Jan Berry, 1941, rock vocalist (Jan & Dean)

Marlon Brando, 1924 , Academy Award-winning actor

Doris Day, 86, actress, singer

George Jessel, 1898 , comedian, actor

Marsha Mason, 68, actress (The Goodbye Girl, Cinderella Liberty)

Eddie Murphy, 49, comedian (“Saturday Night Live”), actor

Wayne Newton, 68, singer

Tony Orlando, 66, singer with Dawn

David Hyde Pierce, 51, actor (Fraser)

Dooley Wilson, 1894, actor (Sam-Casablanca)

Business, Education Leaders

Russel Wright, 1904, American industrial designer

Political Leaders

John Hanson, 1715, 1st US President under Articles of Confederation

Helmut Kohl, 80, Chancellor: Federal Republic of Germany

Scientists /Religious Leaders

Jane Goodall (Baroness Van Lawick-Goodall), 76, anthropologist known for study of chimpanzees

Virgil Grissom , 1926, Lieutenant Colonel USAF/astronaut (Merc 4, Gemini 3)

•3 April Obits •

Graham Greene, 1991, British writer (3rd Man, Our man in Havana), @ 86

Jesse James, 1882, outlaw, shot dead @ 34

Sarah Vaughan, 1990, jazz singer, lung cancer @ 66

‡ ANSWERS to puzzle

1 Alaska: North to the future

2 Kansas: Ad astra per aspera To the stars through difficulties

3 Mississippi: By valor and arms

4 New Mexico: Crescit eundo: It grows as it goes

5 Rhode Island: Hope

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