Sun 5-30

≈Week 22 of 2010: 150 days this year…215 days remain≈

≈ Something To Think About  

Never do anything against conscience even if the state demands it.

~Albert Einstein

≈ Random Sports Facts    

Denver Nuggets — This name was chosen by team officials to pay tribute to the 19th century mining boom in Colorado.

Detroit Pistons — Fred Zollner, who owned a piston-making plant in Fort Wayne, Ind., was the team's first owner. The Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons were renamed the Pistons when they moved to Detroit in 1957.

Indiana Pacers — Chosen by investors, the name is said to reflect the area's rich harness racing history and the pace car at the country's most famous auto race-the Indianapolis 500.

• Holy Mackerel: On this day in 1650 ►An ordinance is passed against the making of counterfeit, or "fake," wampum by the Directors of the Council of the New Netherlands. European manufacturers are producing the fakes, which are being used to pay Indians.

≈ Free Ramblings    

Sadly, the BP mud-into-the-hole plan was abandoned today. BP is flying by the seat of its collective pants. I find it so hard to believe that BP is so poorly prepared and that they are doing such a terrible spin operation. For two days they have been telling us that the plume coming from the well is mostly mud. The CEO of BP made a statement today about how they are now using aerial photographs—some from planes and some from US satellites—to find the tiny (his word) plumes of surface oil. Some of these plumes are 3 miles wide by 10 miles long and several hundred feet deep. Agreed these would be hard to find in the vast Gulf, but any spin guy would know not use the word ‘tiny’. The animals that run into these plumes would not see them as tiny. When these plumes hit the marsh land or the beaches, they will not be seen as tiny. On the LA coast, a team is building a barrier to keep the oil off the beach. It is basically a huge soft rubber pipe filled with water. They are used during hurricanes. They are building a seven mile barrier. It takes a team 24 hours for them to put in a one mile section of this pipe. I wonder if BP sees this as a tiny effort of protection.

It is certainly the Memorial Day weekend. All one has to do is attempt to drive down Rt 66. Starting yesterday afternoon and continuing today, the road is loaded with campers, huge RV’s, and the like. I stopped for gas at my local station. They have two islands with about 10 pumps. All pumps were busy and there was a line to get in. The gas was the same price as always, and the place across the street was just as busy. I guess that is a good sign of the times. People are traveling. I had to pick up some dessert for my BBQ tomorrow afternoon at Safeway. Big mistake…parking lot filled, all registers open and three baskets in each line. I remember those days when I worked in a grocery store. No matter how fast you check people out, more just keep coming. Good for business, hard on employees. As usual I was able to observe one of my pet peeves. Most customers unload their groceries onto the belt, then move down to the register and watch the machine make its little beeps. When the harried cashier tells the customer the final total, the customer reaches into her purse/his wallet and tried to decide if they are using cash/credit/debit or whatever. They then find the correct card and swipe it. Then the cashier leads them through the multitude of screens to pay. I’m retired and have lots of time, if needed. I just wish these people would be a little more prepared.

I really enjoy music, and music of most genres. While I am doing this blog, a visitor has arrived in the parking lot. A twenty something girl parks and gets out of her car in high heels. When she opens the door to the car there is a booming of rap music coming from inside the small vehicle. She chooses not to full close the door, knowing that the entire complex likes good music. She goes to her destination and about 5 minutes later comes back out to get something from the car. Again she doesn’t fully close the door and returns to her friends. Another 10 minutes and she returns and leaves. She then drives off, smiling, knowing that she has provided all of us all with a nice musical interlude while she conducted her business. The strange thing about our little encounter, when she closed the door to the vehicle, the music could not be heard. There was none of the infamous bass shaking the vehicle and sharing that bass with all within a 100 yard radius. How did she do dat?

We had some breeze today, and we made it to 75°. A nice day to spend outside. I took a lengthy walk and found a couple of houses that were having garage sales. Not anything I needed or wanted, but interesting none the less. Certainly nothing I was going to carry on my walk and nothing I would drive to get. A couple of TC people stopped by this afternoon. Good to see them. I have a few friends in TC who are really friends, and not just job acquaintances. We are able to talk about things that have little or nothing to do with our work days. That is always cool. Schools on the rez are out, weather has really warmed up. Could summer really be here? I’m still holding out for another snow storm. Each day of 70°+ weather is making that less and less probable.

≈ A Quick Smile…    

Since he runs a pawnshop, I decided to ask a friend of mine to appraise my grandfather's violin. "Old fiddles aren't worth much, I'm afraid," he explained.

"What makes it a fiddle and not a violin?" I asked.

"If you're buying it from me, it's a violin. If I'm buying it from you, it's a fiddle."

≈ Puzzle 1    

What do these 6 sets of words have in common?
1. Man true, hairy

2. Son nick, yard rich

3. Son will, row wood

4. Grant, us list you

5. More fill, lard mill

6. Ding hard, wren war

≈ Side Show Stories    

PITTSBURGH - A nun who serves as principal of a Pittsburgh school said she stopped a thief with a single sentence: "You need to give me what you have."

Sister Lynn Rettinger, principal of Sacred Heart Elementary School in the Shadyside neighborhood, said preschool teacher Donna Caligiuri called to her at about 2:05 p.m. Tuesday and said a man had taken a wallet out of a purse in an unlocked car, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported Thursday. Rettinger, who was wearing white slacks and a blue jacket with her Sisters of Charity pin, said she walked out the front door and spoke to the man from the top of the steps. "I said to him, 'You need to give me what you have.' That's what I say to children if I know they have something they shouldn't. I say, 'You need to give me what's in your pocket,'" Rettinger said. "He gave it to me, and then he apologized," she said. She said the man walked away calmly. "He didn't even run," she said.

≈ Puzzle 2: Brain Food  

I am weightless, but you can see me. Put me in a bucket, and I'll make it lighter. What am I?

≈ Calendar Information    

• Observance Weeks in May•

25-31

Week of Solidarity With The People of Non-Self-Governing Territories

26-30

International Whistler's Week

5/27–6/6

Largest annual festival of literature takes place: Hay-on-Wye, Powys, Wales.

5/30-6/5

Black Single Parents Week

• Today’s Observances—US/UN/World •

Hug Your Cat Day: And yes your cat knows it

Loomis Day: Pays tribute to the inventor of wireless telegraphy, Mahlom Loomis, a Washington DC dentist, who received his patent for wire-free telegraphing on May 30, 1872

My Bucket's Got A Hole In It Day: Not be to confused with the Dear Liza song. To Hear Hank Sr’s version Click HERE!

Lincoln City IN : Nancy Hanks Lincoln (Abe’s mother) Memorial Day

• Today’s Observances—by country •

Anguilla (Caribbean Islands): Anguilla Day, commemorates the beginning of the Anguillian Revolution in 1967.

Canary Islands: Canary Islands Day

Trinidad and Tobago: (East) Indian Arrival Day

Channel Is, England, N Ireland, Wales: Spring Holiday
Croatia: Parliament Day
Nicaragua: Mother's Day
Puerto Rico: Lod Massacre Remembrance Day (1972: 17 Puerto Rican’s killed by Japanese Terrorists (hired by PFLP) in Lod Airport, Tel Aviv

US: The REAL Memorial Day (Decoration Day) (1868)

• Today’s Number One Songs in…

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

"Music, once admitted to the soul, becomes a sort of spirit, and never dies." ~ Edward Bulwer-Lytton.

1947 ►Heartaches; Ted Weems

1957 ►Love Letters in the Sand; Pat Boone

1967 ►Respect; Aretha Franklin

1977 ►Sir Duke; Stevie Wonder

1987 ►With or Without You; U2

• Today’s Happenings•

In The Arts

1783 ►The Pennsylvania Evening Post, first published by Benjamin Towne in Philadelphia, PA this day, was the first daily paper in the U.S.

1933 ►Sally Rand made a name for herself as she introduced her exotic and erotic fan dance to audiences at Chicago’s Century of Progress Exposition.

In Athletics

1967 ►Robert "Evel" Knievel's motorcycle jumps 16 automobiles

In Business or Education

1848 ►William G Young patents ice cream freezer

1889 ►The brassiere is invented

In Politics

1842 ►John Francis attempts to assassinate Queen Victoria

1848 ►México ratifies treaty giving US; New Mexico, California & parts of Nevada, Utah, Arizona & Colorado in return for $15 million

1896 ►1st car accident occurs, Henry Wells hit a bicyclist (NYC)

1908 ►1st federal workmen's compensation law approved

1922 ►Lincoln Memorial dedicated

1967 ►Biafra proclaims its independence from Nigeria

In Science/ Religion

1539 ►Spanish explorer Fernando de Soto discovers Florida

1959 ►World's 1st hovercraft (SR-N1) tested at Cowes England

1975 ►European Space Agency (ESA) forms

1980 ►1st papal visit to France since 1814

• Today’s Births •

Artists, Writers, and Composers

Alfred Austin, poet laureate of England (Garden), born in 1835 Leeds England

Peter Carl Fabergé, goldsmith/jeweler/egg maker, born in 1846 Saint Petersburg, Russia

Trey Parker, 38, director, creator (“South Park”), born Auburn, AL

Athletes

Manny Ramirez (Manuel "Manny" Aristides Ramírez Onelcida), 38, baseball player(Indians, Red Sox, Dodgers) born Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

Gale Eugene Sayers, 67, Hall of Fame football player( Bears), born Wichita, KS

Entertainers

Mel[vin Jerome] Blanc, voice (Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd & Porky Pig), born in 1908 San Francisco CA

Benny Goodman, clarinetist/bandleader (King of Swing), born in 1909 Chicago IL

Howard Hawks producer, director: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Monkey Business, Hatari, Rio Bravo, Rio Lobo, Sergeant York, A Song is Born, The Thing, born in 1896 Goshen, Indiana

Wynonna Judd, 46, singer, born Ashland, KY

Meredith MacRae actress, born in 1944 Houston, TX

Michael J. Pollard, 71, actor (Bonnie and Clyde, “Leo & Liz in Beverly Hills”), born Passaic, NJ

Norman Eugene "Clint" Walker, 83, actor (The Dirty Dozen, “Cheyenne”), born Hartford, IL

Business, Education Persons

Christine Jorgensen pioneer transsexual, born in 1926 Bronx, NY

Political Persons

Peter the Great (Piotr Alekseevich Romanov) Peter I: Russian Czar, born in 1672 Moscow, Russia

Scientists /Religious Persons

Dr Joseph W Kennedy scientist (1 of 4 discoverers of plutonium), born in 1916 Nacogdoches, TX

• Today’s Obits •

Joan of Arc burned as a witch by the English at Rouen, in 1431 @ 19

Christopher Marlowe British dramatist (Tamburlaine the Great), murdered in 1593 @ 29

Peter Paul Rubens Flemish painter, in 1640 gout @ 62

Alexander Pope English poet (Eloisa to Abelard), in 1744 @ 56

Claude Rains actor (Invisible Man), in 1967 @ 77

Audie Murphy WWII hero/actor (Sierra), in 1971 plane crash @ 46

≈ ANSWERS to Puzzle 1    

All are Presidents
1. Harry Tru-man

2. Rich-ard Nix-on

3. Wood-row Wil-son

4. U-lyss-es Grant

5. Mil-lard Fill-more

6. War-ren Har-ding

≈ ANSWERS to Brain Food  

A hole

≈ Something you might enjoy…  

In 2005, YouTube changed the internet forever. It is now available in 22 languages. Check out this one…

Here’s Pat Boones #1 song from 1957: Click HERE!

And since I oops’ed and didn’t post any links yesterday—Here is Areatha’s Repect. Click HERE!

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