Tuesday August 17

This is Week 33 of 2010►Day 229 with 136 days left.

FREE RAMBLING THOUGHTS

A great Monday. My friend Martha had her back surgery today. She has been in pain for so long, and she finally found the Spinal Institute in Scottsdale that did the procedure. She has been tested, poked, prodded, scanned and tested some more for about three months. It seems that it was worth it. She was operated on at noon and was at her motel room about five hours later. It’s amazing what lasers can do these days. So glad that she will be pain free and even will be able to march in her pipe band and be able to travel to Ireland in December without her carry-on filled with pain meds.

Obama is a president, like most who preceded him, is not making decisions based on polls. While I wish he was a little more behind getting out of Afghanistan I am still happy that he reminded us that Freedom of Religion is just that. Many of his distracters are very upset about his statements on the Mosque in NYC. Other countries must be very confused by our form of government. Few countries allow the crazies to speak out so loudly and so often against their elected leader without a coup attempted.

I was out and about this afternoon. Parts of Flag had a real downpour; here we had a little rain with lots of thunder. My deck climbed to 80° before the rain set in. Then it dropped quickly to a nice 72°, with lots of grey sky.

I have always enjoyed visiting our National Parks. Our National Park System is really ‘America’s Best Idea’. For the next few weeks I will be highlighting one of the National Parks in the Photo of the Day. I’m starting with Yellowstone, the first National Park, and highlighting them by the date they become National Parks.

QUOTE FOR THE DAY

Barry Goldwater: I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.

HOLY MACKEREL: 1980 – 8 month old Azaria Chamberlain disappears, probably taken by a dingo, leading to what was then the most publicized trial in Australian history.

SOMEWHAT USELESS INFORMATION about Lunch boxes

~The lunch pail, an early ancestor of the lunchbox, was just a sturdy metal pail with a snug top. Some had originally been made to hold lard.

~Beginning in the late 1800s some tobacco companies sold products in tins that were designed to be reused as lunchboxes. These tins, which might have one or two handles, came in a variety of colors and sometimes featured elaborate artwork.

~Manufacturers soon realized that they could sell lunchboxes made especially for children, and these colorful boxes debuted around 1900. A number of children's lunchboxes appeared in the following decades, including a 1935 model featuring Mickey Mouse.

~Lunchboxes really became popular after World War II when the Aladdin company in Nashville, Tenn., began making lunchboxes that featured movie and television heroes. In 1950 Aladdin issued a Hopalong Cassidy lunchbox, which was available in red or blue and included a matching thermos.

~Roy Rogers teamed up with the Thermos company for a groundbreaking 1953 lunchbox which featured brilliant colors and full-color lithography on every side.

~In 1957 Aladdin introduced the "dome-top" box, which offered more space for lunchbox art and a shape that had creative potential. Disney's dome-top "Schoolbus" lunchbox became the best-selling lunchbox of all time. In 1962 Aladdin again made history when it began making lunchboxes with embossed designs that gave a three-dimensional effect.

GREY MATTER PUZZLE 1—Jeopardy Answers—Foreign Phrases

In Germany, said before a toast & after a sneeze

American equivalent to English "the bonnet on a lorry"

From French, it literally means "a pen name

The vidi, in "Veni, vidi, vici"

UNUSUAL NEWS ITEM

GREEN TREE, PA- A suburban Pittsburgh man who dresses as a canine for conventions and parties is asking a judge to let him change his legal name to Boomer the Dog. Gary Guy Mathews, 44, of Green Tree, told Allegheny County Common Pleas Court Judge Robert Folino during Tuesday's hearing that he is involved with "furries," a movement of people who dress in animal costumes that has an annual convention in Pittsburgh, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.

Mathews told the judge his name and costume are based on the main character from "Here's Boomer," a short-lived NBC series about a stray mutt that rescues humans from danger. Mathews said many of his friends already call him Boomer and his parents had even warmed to the moniker before they died. Folino, whose ruling is due this week, said he may reject the request if he determines it "causes confusion in the community" or raises the "likelihood of unintended consequences."

A LITTLE LAUGH

As a jet was flying over Arizona on a clear day, the copilot was providing his passengers with a running commentary about landmarks over the PA system.

"Coming up on the right, you can see the Meteor Crater, which is a major tourist attraction in northern Arizona. It was formed when a lump of nickel and iron, roughly 150 feet in diameter and weighing 300,000 tons, struck the earth 50,000 years ago at about 40,000 miles an hour, scattering white-hot debris for miles in every direction. The hole measures nearly a mile across and is 570 feet deep."

The lady sitting next to me exclaimed: "Wow, look! It just missed the highway!"

GREY MATTER PUZZLE 2--Riddle

Imagine you are in a bungalow (a house with only 1 floor) and everything is white...

1.What color are the floors?

2.What color are the walls?

3.What color are the carpets?

4.What color are the Stairs?

FOUND ON ‘YOU TUBE’

Retro lunch boxes: Click Here!

GREY MATTER PICTURE

This is a close up of what object?

SOME CALENDAR INFORMATION

♦ Weekly Observances ♦

15-21: National Aviation Week

……….Weird Contest Week

♦ Today’s Observances ♦

National Thrift Shop Day

Argentina: San Martin Day (1850)

India: Janmashtami: a Hindu festival celebrating the birth of Lord Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu deity Vishnu.

Indonesia (from Japan/Netherlands-1945), Gabon (from France-1960) : Independence Day

♦ Hit Songs on this date ♦

The Star-Spangled Banner Prince's Orchestra   1916

To Each His Own Eddy Howard   1946

Hound Dog/Don't Be Cruel Elvis Presley 1956

Summer in the City The Lovin' Spoonful   1966

Don't Go Breaking My Heart   Elton John & Kiki Dee   1976

Papa, Don't Preach Madonna   1986

♦ Today’s Births ♦

• The Arts

Belinda Carlisle, 52, singer (The Go-Go’s)…born Hollywood, CA

~~~

Robert De Niro, 67, actor (Oscars for Raging Bull, The Godfather Part II; Taxi Driver)…born New York, NY

Maureen O’Hara, 90, actress (Miracle on 34th Street, The Hunch-back of Notre Dame)…born Dublin, Ireland

Sean Penn, 50, actor (Oscars for Mystic River and Milk; Dead Man Walking)…born Santa Monica, CA

Mae (Mary Jane) West, actress (Go up & see her sometime) …born 1892…Bushwick, NY

• Athletics

Christian Laettner, 41, basketball player( Timberwolves, Hawks,Pistons, Mavericks, Wizards,Heat)…born Angola, NY

Guillermo Vilas, 58, former tennis player…born Mar del Plata, Argentina

• Business & Education

Samuel Goldwyn (Schmuel Gelbfisz), movie pioneer: the ‘G’ of MGM…born 1879…Warsaw, Poland

• Politics

Davy Crockett, frontiersman/adventurer/politician…born 1786…Greene County, TN

Marcus Garvey, began back-to-Africa movement among US blacks…born 1887… St. Ann's Bay, Jamaica

Francis Gary Powers, US spy (USSR captures him in 1959 U-2 incident)…born 1929…Jenkins, KY

• Science/Religion

Frederick Russell, developed 1st successful typhoid fever vaccine…born 1870…Auburn,

♦ Today’s Obituaries ♦

Pearl Bailey, broadway actress/singer, heart attack @ 72 in 1990

Ira Gershwin, lyricist, dies in Beverly Hills, Cal, @ 86 in 1983

Rudolph Hess, Nazi, @ 93, after 46 years in Spandau Prison in 1987

Jose Francisco de San Martin, South American revolutionary hero, @72 in 1850

Vivian Vance, actress (Ethel Mertz-I Love Lucy), @ 72 in 1979

♦ Today’s Events ♦

• The Arts

1959 Kind of Blue by Miles Davis, the much acclaimed and highly influential best selling jazz recording of all time, is released

• Athletics

1933 Lou Gehrig breaks record by playing in his 1,308th straight game

• Business & Education

1807 Robert Fulton's steamboat Clermont begins 1st trip up Hudson River

1858 1st bank in Hawaii opens

• Indigenous People

1755 Almost 400 Indians attack John Kilburn’s stockade at Walpole, Connecticut. Some sources say the Indians are led by King Philip. After a day of fighting, the Indians withdraw.

1765 Pontiac and the British sign a treaty

1862 The Lakota (Sioux) Dakota War of 1862 begins in Minnesota as Lakota warriors attack white settlements along the Minnesota River.

• Politics (US)

1846 US takes Los Angeles

• Politics (International)

1815 Napoleon arrived at Saint Helena for the beginning of his exile.

1960 Francis Gary Powers U-2 spy trial opens in Moscow

1961 Building of the Berlin Wall begins

• Science / Religion

1787 Jews are granted permission in Budapest Hungary to pray in groups

1870 1st ascent of Mt Rainier, Washington

1915 Charles F. Kettering of Detroit, MI patented the electric, automobile self-starter

GREY MATTER ANSWERS

↔ 1

In Germany, said before a toast & after a sneeze: What is gesundheit?

American equivalent to English "the bonnet on a lorry": What is the hood of a truck?

From French, it literally means "a pen name”: What is a nom de plume?

The vidi, in "Veni, vidi, vici": what is I saw?

↔ 2

1. White!!

2. White!!

3. White!!

4. There is no stairs its a bungalow (a house with only 1 floor!!!)

↔ Picture

The tail of an airplane

TODAY’S NATIONAL PARK PHOTO SHOTS

Yellowstone National Park, the first, as of March 1, 1872: Situated on the Yellowstone Caldera, the first national park in the world has vast geothermal areas such as hot springs and geysers, the best-known being Old Faithful and Grand Prismatic Spring. The yellow-hued Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River has numerous waterfalls, and four mountain ranges run through the park. There are almost 60 mammal species, including the gray wolf, grizzly bear, lynx,bison, and elk.

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