Monday 5-10

≈Week 19 of 2010: 130 days this year… 235 days remain≈

≈ Something To Think About 

That man is the richest whose pleasures are the cheapest.

--Henry David Thoreau

≈ Random Fact   

New Zealand kiwis lay the largest eggs with respect to their body size of any bird.

• Holy Mackerel: On this day in 1267 ►Vienna's church orders all Jews to wear a distinctive garb

≈ Free Ramblings   

Arizona has always been a kind of Wild West State. Over the years it has certainly helped our tourist industry. Arizona has lots of land that many see as a good place to build. Our population continues to grow rapidly. These make it understandable that many understand why we have such a high crime rate. As we hear how illegal immigrants are causing our high crime rate, this is not the case. According to the Wall Street Journal, Arizona’s violent crime is the lowest it has been since 1980, property crime has dropped 28% since 1980. Illegal immigrants have come in from Mexico at much higher rates between 1980 and 2010. What is really hurting AZ is the illegal drug trafficking. Drug runners do not come into the US to stay, they are called mules. They bring in the drugs, drop off the drugs, and then go back to Mexico for more. As long as American legals continue to purchase illegal drugs, the mules will continue to bring them. From my view, all the hype about how the illegals are destroying AZ is just that, hype to allow laws that discriminate. As time passes with SB1070, everyone will be able to see that this bill will not solve any of our problems. With the many boycotts already in the works and more expected, SB1070 is hurting Arizona more than it will ever be able to help.

Just when it looked like the fire near Flagstaff was being contained, the winds returned. Steady winds of about 30mph and gust to 50mph have people in the area very concerned. Most of the state is under a Red Flag Warning until tomorrow. That means that fire can start very easily and spread even more quickly. Flag’s 600 acre fire is the biggest, but two others in the far south are also burning. The spring rains put lots of new growth out there, the spring winds dried that new growth very quickly. Now much of the state forests are tinderboxes.

≈ A Quick Smile…   

My husband was telling me about a news item he heard on National Public Radio about how the U.S. military is enlisting honeybees to find land mines. The insects are trained to react to the scent of TNT, then are fitted with transmitters and sent out to search for underground explosives. "When they smell TNT," my husband explained, "the insects hover over the area and the military tracks them to the site to safely eliminate the land mine."

"Gee," I remarked, "it gives a whole new meaning to the slogan 'Bee all that you can bee!'"

≈ Puzzle   

Retronyms are terms renamed after something similar but newer has come into being. For example AM radio was just called ‘radio’ before the introduction of FM radio.

1. Margarine become a big seller. Many advertising gurus used lots of clever phrases to have consumers think it was the predecessor. The original added an adjective to let everyone know there product was the one from cows.

2. People were drinking it since it became available inside one’s residence. The adjective had to be added to differentiate it from the more costly bottled type.

3. Telling time, any time, has made portable time keeping machines a good business. When time pieces were available to wear on one’s arm, and adjective had to be added to the older type.

≈ Side Show Stories   

BRISBANE, Australia - An Australian homeowner said workmen mistakenly began digging a swimming pool in his garden and fled once they discovered the $17,700 mistake. Peter

Collard of Brisbane, who is trying to sell the house, said he received a call from his real estate agent saying he should rush home because two men were digging in his yard, The Daily Telegraph reported Thursday. "The first I heard of it was when my agent rang me and said: 'There's someone digging your yard up. You'd better rush home,'" Collard said. "I rushed home to find this huge mess and about $20,000 (U.S. $17,700) worth of damage." "These guys obviously knew there was something up and took off," he said. Susan Grantham of Queensland state police said the men loaded their backhoe onto a dump truck and left the scene without explanation. "They just picked everything up and were gone," she said. Collard said his insurance is not covering the damage and appealed to neighbors to come forward if they recently arranged to have a pool dug in their yards.

≈ Calendar Information

• Observance Weeks in May•

6-12

National Nurses Day and Week

8-16

National Tourism Week

9-15

National Nursing Home Week

National Police Week

National Return To Work Week

National Women's Health Week

Reading is Fun Week

Salute to Moms 35+ Week

10-16

National Etiquette Week

Salvation Army Week

Universal Family Week

Children's Book Week

National Stuttering Awareness Week

• Today’s Observances—US/UN/World •

Clean Up Your Room Day

Lupus Day

Windmill Day

• Today’s Observances—by country •

Hong Kong : Tin Hau's Day: Patron Saint of fishermen

North & South Carolina : Confederate Memorial Day (1868)

Thailand : Ploughing Ceremony

Federated States of Micronesia: Constitution Day

• Today’s Number One Songs in…

For anyone interested, all these songs are available on iTunes.

1951 ►How High the Moon; Les Paul & Mary Ford

1961 ►Runaway; Del Shannon

1971 ►Joy to the World; Three Dog Night

1981 ►Bette Davis Eyes; Kim Carnes

• Today’s Happenings•

In The Arts

1824 ►The National Gallery in London opens to the public.

In Athletics

1997 ►Chicago Cubs turn baseballs 68th triple play (vs San Fransisco Giants)

In Business or Education

1869 ►Golden Spike driven, completes Promontory Point UT-Transcontinental RR

In Politics

1775 ►Green Mountain Boys capture Fort Ticonderoga NY-American Revolution

1832 ►Settlers start construction of what is called Fort Blue Mounds, near modern Madison, Wisconsin, the fort is built to protect the settlers from attacks by the Winnebagos.
1864 ►Cherokee Stand Watie is promoted to the rank of Brigadier General in the Confederate army. He is the first Indian to reach that rank. He will also be the last Confederate General to surrender at the end of the Civil War.

1924 ►J Edgar Hoover appointed head of the FBI

1941 ►Adolf Hitler's deputy Rudolf Hess parachutes into Scotland to broker a peace deal with UK and Germany. Fails

1998 ►Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams and other members of Sinn Fein, the political wing of the republican IRA, vote to accept the Good Friday peace agreement.

In Science/ Religion

1752 ►Benjamin Franklins 1st tests the lightning rod

1930 ►The Adler Planetarium opened to the public in Chicago, IL.

• Today’s Births •

Artists, Writers, and Composers

David O Selznick, 1902, Pittsburgh PA, producer (Gone With the Wind)

Athletes

Ken (Allen Kent) Berry, 1941, baseball: White Sox [all-star: 1967], Angels, Brewers, Indians

Ara Raoul Parseghian, 87, former football coach and sportscaster

Pat Summerall, 1930, football: New York Giants kicker; TV sportscaster

Entertainers

Fred Astaire (Austerlitz) ,1899, dancer, actor

Bono Vox [Paul Hauson], 50, singer (U2), humanitarian activist, Dublin Ireland Mother Maybelle Carter (Addington), 1909, musician

Fats Domino, 81, rocker (Blueberry Hill)

Donovan (Leitch), 64, singer: Mellow Yellow, Sunshine Superman

Gary Owens, 74, Radio Hall of Famer; TV announcer, actor: Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-in

Nancy Walker (Ann Myrtle Swoyer), 1921, Philadelphia PA, Bounty ads/actress (Rhoda, McMillan & Wife)

Business, Education Leaders

Montgomery Blair, 1813, Franklin County KY, lawyer (Dred Scot v Sandford)

Sir Thomas Johnstone Lipton, 1850, Glasgow Scotland, yachtsman/tea magnate (Lipton Tea)

Political Leaders

John Wilkes Booth, 1838, assassin of Abraham Lincoln

Scientists /Religious Leaders

J.D. Bernal, 1901, British crystallographer

• Today’s Obits •

Joan Crawford, 1977, actress, pancreatic cancer @ 69

John Wesley Hyatt, 1920, inventor/plastics pioneer, @ 83

Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson, 1863, Confederate General (Civil War), wounds received at Chancellorsville @ 39

Paul Revere, 1818, American patriot, @ 84

Joanie Weston, 1997, roller derby queen (Bay Bombers), brain disease @ 61

≈ ANSWERS to puzzle   

1. real butter

2. tap water

3. pocket watch

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