July 6 Tuesday

This is Week 27 of 2010, Day 187 with 178 days left. It is Day 78 of the BP Mess.

FREE RAMBLING THOUGHTS

A holiday Monday doesn’t mean a lot when you are retired. That does not mean it is not a day to get things done. I washed the car this morning. I am a little tired of my brown ride being covered with sticky yellow pollen dust. It looks like powder, but doesn’t really brush off or blow off. It means the trees in our area must be healthy, so that is good. I also cleaned up the deck area and realized I need to get more food for the birds. I added a bag of some little black seeds and amazingly tiny and very colorful finches have flocked to it. It is now empty. The finches certainly add color to the area while they eat.

The spy stories stay in the news: Russians in American neighborhoods, American in China, hikers in the war zone. I’m surprised our non-elected governor hasn’t said that the hordes of immigrants she sees infiltrating our state aren’t spies. She has stuck with her drug runner story.

I heard a very disheartening story on NPR today. A scientist who did a study during the Valdez spill followed oil-coated birds to see what happened. Hundreds of volunteers rushed to Alaska to clean birds. His study showed that about 50% of the birds lived through the trauma of the cleaning. The average life span after the survivors were released back into the wild was six days. As if this isn’t bad enough, Exxon petitioned the courts to let them deduct the money they spent on rehabbing birds be removed from their pay back costs. The courts granted that billion dollar deduction. The hope of the scientist is that this doesn’t happen again in the gulf. I have always been a ‘quality over quantity of life’ person. I have a hard time understanding why those poor animals have to be put through such trauma for such a short life of freedom. I think that BP should have to set up bird sanctuaries and replace every bird that is lost due to their incompetence. Another distressful story is the tourist business. For many gulf area small businesses their 4th of July weekend business (their busiest) is down 60% over last year, and last year was not a good one. Somehow I fear that BP will wiggle out of any payments to these people. All Americans will end up paying. We are now at day 78 and the oil just keeps coming out.

We had a nice warm day here in Flagstaff—not like the East Coast. We climbed to 84° but didn’t have a lot of breeze so it wasn’t as nice as yesterday. The monsoon rain is expected this weekend—and none too soon for the forest, the residents, and I guess the tourists.

Note: Thanks to Martha for catching a couple of stupid errors in yesterday’s blog. Sometimes my brain goes faster than my typing and my rambling takes on some very strange twists.

HOLY MACKEREL: On this date in 1912 ►Jim Thorpe (Wa-Tho-Huk) gained fame as the world’s greatest athlete when the Olympic Games opened in Stockholm, Sweden. Thorpe, a Sac and Fox Indian, was known as Bright Path, his given Indian name. When the King of Sweden called Thorpe “the greatest athlete in the world,” Thorpe replied by saying, “Thanks, King.”

MY QUOTE FOR THE DAY

Henry David Thoreau: Thank God men cannot fly, and lay waste the sky as well as the earth.

Robert Redford, Yosemite National Park dedication, 1985: I think the environment should be put in the category of our national security. Defense of our resources is just as important as defense abroad. Otherwise what is there to defend?

SOMEWHAT USELESS INFORMATION

Not all members of the Continental Congress supported a formal Declaration of Independence, but those who did were passionate about it. One representative rode 80 miles by horseback to reach Philadelphia and break a tie in support of independence.

GREY MATTER PUZZLE 1

It's a rebus; you know the drill:

stEvE EldEr -- smiling and benevolent

bEn mEEkEr -- gregarious and generous

frEd fErbEr -- a snarling old coot

nEll nEff -- penny-pinching

EdgEr bErgEn -- entertaining and law-abiding

UNUSUAL NEWS ITEM

CARSON CITY, NV — State prison officials are investigating reports that a fundraiser at the Nevada State Prison featured scantily clad female band members and a motorcycle that was brought into the yard for inmate pictures.

Nevada Department of Corrections spokeswoman Suzanne Pardee says the agency's inspector general's office is interviewing staff to find out what happened during the June 26 barbecue and fundraiser hosted by the Vietnam Veterans of America. It was unclear what the event was raising money for, and a message left Sunday at the Vietnam Veterans of America state headquarters wasn't immediately returned.

A copy of the minutes from a Tuesday prison staff meeting referred to the barbecue as a "fiasco." The minutes say the band members wore appropriate attire to enter the prison but later changed.

The Nevada State Prison is a medium security prison and houses about 700 inmates.

A LITTLE LAUGH

A man is stumbling through the woods totally drunk when he comes upon a preacher baptizing people in the river. The drunk walks into the water and subsequently bumps into the preacher. The preacher turns around and is almost overcome by the smell of booze. Whereupon he asks the drunk, "Are you ready to find Jesus?"

"Yes I am" replies the drunk, so the preacher grabs him and dunks him in the river. He pulls him up and asks the drunk, "Brother have you found Jesus?"

The drunk replies, "No, I haven't." The preacher, shocked at the answer, dunks him into the water again, but for a bit longer this time. He pulls him out of the water and asks again, "Have you found Jesus, my brother?"

The drunk again answers, "No, I have not found Jesus."

By this time the preacher is at his wits end so he dunks the drunk in the water again, but this time he holds him down for about 30 seconds.

When the drunk begins kicking his arms and legs, the preacher pulls him up.. The preacher asks the drunk again, "For the love of God, have you found Jesus?"

The drunk wipes his eyes and catches his breath and says to the preacher,

"Are you sure this is where he fell in?"

GREY MATTER PUZZLE 2

Name an ancient invention, which is still used in some parts of the world today, that allows people to see through walls.

FOUND ON YOU TUBE

Dali Lama speaks at UC-Berkeley Click Here!

GREY MATTER PICTURE

This is a close up of what common object?

SOME CALENDAR INFORMATION

► Weekly Observances ◄

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

► Today’s Observances ◄

National Fried Chicken Day

Take Your Webmaster to Lunch Day

Earth at Aphelion

Cayman Islands: Constitution Day : Independence Day (1964)/Republic Day (1966)

Comoros(island in Indian Ocean): Independence Day (from France in 1975)Malawi

Tibet: Birthday of the 14th Dalai Lama

► Hit Songs on this date ◄

Moon Glow: Benny Goodman in 1934

I'll Get By (As Long as I Have You): Harry James in 1944

Little Things Mean a Lot: Kitty Kallen in 1954

I Get Around: The Beach Boys in 1964

Rock the Boat: The Hues Corporation in 1974

When Doves Cry: Prince in 1984

► Born today ◄

…The Arts

Allyce Beasley, 56, actress (“Moonlighting”), born Brooklyn, NY

Ned Beatty, 73, actor (“Homicide,” Hear My Song, Deliverance), born Louisville, KY

Gene Chandler (Eugene Dixon), 73, singer: Duke of Earl born in Chicago, IL

Merv Griffin, TV host (Merv Griffin Show) born in 1925 San Mateo, CA

Bill Haley (William John Clifton Haley), (& the Comets-Rock Around the Clock) born in 1925 Highland Park, MI

Janet Leigh, actress, She's in the shower (Psycho, Harper) born in 1927, LA, CA

Pat Paulsen, comedian, presidential candidate (Smothers Bros Show) born in 1927 South Bend, WA

Della Reese, 78, singer, actress (“Touched by an Angel”), born Deloreese Patricia Early at Detroit, MI

Sylvester Stallone, 64, actor (Rocky and Rambo films), director, born New York, NY

Burt Ward, 65, actor (“Batman”), born Los Angeles, CA

…Athletics

Willie Randolph, 56, baseball: Pirates, Yankees, Dodgers, Athletics, Brewers, Mets born in Holly Hill, SC

Harold Vanderbilt, America Cup (1930,34,37)/invented contract bridge born in 1884 Oakdale, NY

…Business & Education

--

…Politics

George W. Bush, 64, 43rd President of the US, former Governor of Texas (R), born New Haven, CT

John Paul Jones, naval hero ("I have not yet begun to fight") born in 1747 Kirkcudbright, Scotland

Nancy Davis Reagan(Anne Robbins-Davis), 89, former First Lady, born New York, NY

…Science / Religion

Dalai Lama, 75, Tibet’s spiritual leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner, born Taktser, China

► Obituaries today ◄

Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong, jazz musician (Hello Dolly), heart attack @ 70 in 1971

William Faulkner. author, inventor of Yoknapatawpha Co, heart attack @ 64 in 1962

Sir Thomas More. executed for treason @ 57 in 1535

► Events ◄

…The Arts

1928 ►The New York Strand Theatre was the scene of a sneak, midnight preview of the film, The Lights of New York. The Warner Bros. film was the first talkie (a talking motion picture).

1947 ►Allen Funt was the host of the ABC radio show, the forerunner of the long-running TV version, Candid Camera.

…Athletics

1912 ►5th Olympic games in Stockholm opens

…Business & Education

1858 ►The shoe manufacturing machine was patented by Lyman Blake of Abington, MA.

…Indigenous People

1825 ►The Cheyenne sign a "friendship" treaty (7 stat. 255) with the United States at the mouth of the Tongue River.

…Politics (US)

1785 ►Congress resolves US currency named "dollar" & adopts decimal coinage

1798 ►US law makes aliens "liable to be apprehended, restrained,... & removed as alien enemies"

1983 ►Supreme Court rules retirement plans can't pay women less

…Politics (outside US)

1923 ►Union of Soviet Socialist Republics formed

…Science / Religion

1885 ►1st inoculation (for rabies) of a human being, by Louis Pasteur

1924 ►A large Meteor Shower lands on Johnstown, Colorado with the largest weighing approximately 14 pounds

1955 ►The Federal Air Pollution Control Act was implemented for research into causal analysis and control of car-emission pollution.

1988 ►An explosion on the Piper Alpha oil rig 120 miles off the north east coast of Scotland in the North Sea caused a fireball 350 feet high and engulfed the platform killing 167 workers.

1994 ►Fourteen firefighters were killed while battling a several-day-old blaze on Storm King Mountain in Colorado.

GREY MATTER ANSWERS

…1

4 E's -- a jolly good fellow

(For He's a Jolly Good Fellow)

…2

A window

…Photo

two eggs in carton

TODAY’S PHOTO SHOT Returns tomorrow

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