July 5 Monday

This is Week 27 of 2010, Day 186 with 179 days left. It is Day 77 of the BP Mess.

FREE RAMBLING THOUGHTS

I had planned to go to the horse races this afternoon, but better things came along. Some friends from the Rez stopped by on their way to a cookout in Foxglenn. Never could turn down ribs, fry bread, potato salad, corn on the cob, and curly fries. It was nice to see a lot of people I hadn’t seen for quite a while. Some of the elementary kids I remember were now high schoolers with a main squeeze boyfriend or girlfriend. Parents are now grandparents. Some grandparents are gone, but others are now great-grand parents. A lot happens in four years. I had a great time. Rez families are so nice to welcome old teachers to their gatherings.

It was a great day for a cookout or just about anything else people had planned in Flag today. Sunblock seems to be doing its job. I’ve been outside, in the hot sun for most of the last two days and am just a little pinker than normal. In my youth, I really liked a deep golden tan in the summer. Back then the only sunblock was zinc oxide—the white stuff—that light skinned people used on their nose. No one talked about permanent skin damage, skin cancer, or wrinkles as we got older. We all just wanted to have fun in the sun and let everyone know we had been out there for long days. Youth of today don’t have that experience—now or when they reach my age.

I just watched a repeat of 60 minutes—Migration in Kenya and Elephant Dictionary. Sure would like to get back to that part of Africa. Someday, I’m sure I will pull it off. The migration of large animals is almost gone from this planet. For millennia they just happened. Man has taken over so much territory that the only known large animal migration is in Africa. No one will ever see the American Bison migrations, so this is the closest thing anyone can see of those times. Sadly, the local tribes have grown and are destroying the forest, which destroys the river and that will eventually destroy the animals of the migration. It will probably happen within my lifetime. The tribal life there is subsistence living. It is a hard life and certainly can be made easier with modern technology. The cost may be too great. Our planet is so fragile and we all have so much to learn about it.

Flagstaff beautiful forest plays into this whole fragile earth thing every day. Lots of letters to the editor are wondering why a local environmental group has filed several suits to stop forest cleaning in the area that subsequently burned. They are concerned that cutting will cause more damage than not cutting. The forest service claims that thinning and clean up would have helped prevent the size and devastation of the burn. Hide sight is always pretty good but in this case, no one really seems to know. Obviously to some is that closing the forest to any campfires would have prevented this fire. There are too many people who don’t follow the rules. [Our complex has a twenty something couple in the commons area right now, lighting firecrackers and taking pictures of it.] I want to see the idiot that started our fire caught, but also realize that devastating fires are part of living in the forest. That dry forest could have been ignited by just about anything. Nature will win out.

My deck was 79° today with only a little breeze. The monsoon didn’t even make clouds today, so it must be farther away than we all hoped.

HOLY MACKEREL: On this date in 1996 ►The first cloning of an animal by scientists was revealed by the Roslin Institute in Scotland when DOLLY THE SHEEP

MY QUOTE FOR THE DAY

Ronald Reagan: We must reject the idea that evey time a law’s broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is responsible for his actions.

SOMEWHAT USELESS INFORMATION

There are 3 colors that don’t rhyme with anything: silver, orange, and purple

GREY MATTER PUZZLE 1

Take the given words, and by moving a single letter from one word to the other, make a pair of synonyms, or near synonyms. For example, given: Boast - Hip, move the 's' from 'Boast' to 'Hip' creating two synonyms: Boat - Ship.

1. Inks - Tiles

2. Ride - Relive

3. Gaze - Freed

4. Snail - Pike

5. Snag - Cold

UNUSUAL NEWS ITEM

MAIDSTONE, England - Workers at a British farm said cows exposed to a theater group performing renditions of a Shakespeare play increased milk production by 4 percent. Farmers at Pleasant Farm, near Maidstone, England, said the Changeling Theater Co.'s renditions of "The Merry Wives of Windsor," a comedy about recurring William Shakespeare character Falstaff attempting to seduce two women, caused the cows to increase their milk yield by 4 percent, The Daily Telegraph reported. "Anything that calms the animals and reduces their stress is good and Shakespeare ticks all the right boxes," farm worker Liam Batt said. "Perhaps there is something in the language of Shakespeare -- we don't know, but it seems to work and milk production has gone up 4 percent." Rob Forknall, artistic director for the Changeling Theater Co., said the "bizarre experiment" was born of wondering whether Shakespeare would have a relaxing effect on cows similar to that of classical music. "We were all slightly surprised when it did," Forknall said. "Since then we've done several rehearsals with the cows. It saves us having to book rehearsal space and the farmer's very pleased to get more milk."

A LITTLE LAUGH

A Cow, an Ant and an Old Fart are debating on who is the greatest of the three of them.

The Cow: I give 15 quarts of milk every day and that's why I am the greatest!

The Ant: I work day and night, summer and winter, I can carry 12 times my own weight and that's why I am the greatest!

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GREY MATTER PUZZLE 2

What jumps when it walks and sits when it stands?

FOUND ON YOU TUBE

Isle of Man Folk Music: Click Here!

GREY MATTER PICTURE

This is a close up of what common object?

SOME CALENDAR INFORMATION

► Weekly Observances ◄

28 -7/5: Fish Are Friends, Not Food! Week AND National Prevention of Eye Injuries Awareness

4-10: Freedom Week AND Be Nice To New Jersey Week

► Today’s Observances ◄

Workaholics Day

Algeria: Independence Day (1962)

Isle of Man: Tynwald Day (1266)

Laos: Boun Festival

Rwanda: Peace & National Unity Day

Venezuela: Independence Day (1811)

► Hit Songs on this date ◄

Shadow Waltz: Bing Crosby in 1933

Comin' In on a Wing and a Prayer: The Song Spinners in 1943

The Song from Moulin Rouge (Where Is Your Heart): Percy Faith in 1953

Easier Said than Done: The Essex in 1963

Will It Go Round in Circles: Billy Preston in 1973

Every Breath You Take: The Police in 1983 Click Here!

► Born today ◄

…The Arts

Huey Lewis [Hugh Anthony Cregg III[, 60, singer (Huey Lewis and the News), born New York, NY

+++

Edie Falco, 47, actress (“The Sopranos”), born Brooklyn, NY

Katherine Helmond, 76, actress (stage: The House of Blue Leaves; “Soap,” “Who’s the Boss?”), born Galveston, TX

Milburn Stone, actor (Doc-Gunsmoke) born in Bruton Ks 1904

…Athletics

Dwight Filley Davis, donated tennis' Davis Cup born in 1879 St. Louis, MO

Richard Michael “Goose” Gossage, 59, Hall of Fame baseball player, born Colorado Springs, CO

…Business & Education

Phineas Taylor Barnum, circus promoter (Barnum & Bailey) born in 1810 Bethel, CT

Sylvester Graham, developed graham cracker born in 1794 Suffield, CT

Sir Stamford Raffles, founded Singapore born in 1781on the ship Ann off the coast of Port Morant, Jamaica

…Politics

David G Farragut, naval hero born in 1801 Knoxville, TN

Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr, politician/ambassador VP nominee in 1960 born in 1902 Nahant, MA

Cecil John Rhodes, diamond tycoon; founded Rhodes Scholarships at Oxford University; the African country of Rhodesia [now Zimbabwe] was named after him born in 1853 Hertfordshire, United Kingdom

…Science / Religion

Dr Andrew Ellicott Douglass, Dendrochronologer (study of tree rings) born in 1867 Windsor, VT

John Northrop, biochemist, crystallized enzymes (Nobel 1946) born in 1891 Yonkers, NY

► Obituaries today ◄

Harry James, swing-era bandleader/trumpet player, cancer @ 67 in 1983

Ted Williams, American baseball player @ 84 in 2002

► Events ◄

…The Arts

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…Athletics

1921 ►Players from The Chicago White Sox Baseball team are accused of throwing the World Series

1975 ►Arthur Ashe becomes the first black man to win the Wimbledon men's singles

…Business & Education

1946 ►The Bikini swimsuit (a daring 2 piece swimming costume for ladies ) was introduced by French designer Louis Reard at a popular swimming pool in Paris.

…Indigenous People

1831 ►N. William Colquhoun is appointed Special Agent to the Choctaws, by Secretary of War, Lewis Cass. Colquhoun is ordered to go to the Choctaw Nation and consult with their leaders about their removal to Indian Territory

…Politics (US)

1865 ►United States Secret Service was created.

1971 ►The Voting Age in the United States is lowered to 18 yrs old

1986 ►Nancy Reagan cuts red, white & blue ribbon; reopens Statue of Liberty

1989 ►Former White House aide Oliver North has been found guilty received a three-year suspended prison sentence and a $150,000 fine for three charges relating to illegal United States' support for the Contra rebels in Nicaragua in the mid-1980s.

…Politics (outside US)

1811 ►Venezuela, 1st South American country to gain independence from Spain

1973 ►Isle of Man begins issuing their own postage stamps

…Science / Religion

1643 ►1st recorded tornado in US (Essex County, MA)

1865 ►William Booth founded Salvation Army in London

2003 ►Following an outbreak of the deadly SARS ( Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome )which had killed about 775 people in 29 countries the World Health Organization (WHO) announces that SARS is now contained.

GREY MATTER ANSWERS

…1

1. Links - Ties

2. Rid - Relieve

3. Graze - Feed

4. Nail - Spike

5. Nag - Scold

…2

A kangaroo

…Photo

tiddlywinks pieces

TODAY’S PHOTO SHOT

Ponderosa Pine Trees--like the ones we lost in our recent fire

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