Friday Sept. 3

This is Week 35 of 2010►Day 246 with 119 days left.

FREE RAMBLING THOUGHTS

Just as I was pulling into the parking lot for lunch, I heard on the news that another explosion had occurred in the Gulf—Vermillion 380. Thankfully it wasn’t a drilling rig but a platform that somehow moves oil from the well to land and appears to be no environmental disaster. It was a shallow well rig. I have learned so much about our drilling for oil in the past 6 months. Had I been asked last year the difference between deep water or shallow water wells, I would have been at a loss. Had I been asked how many oil wells were producing in the Gulf, my answer would have been nowhere near the 4,000 I now know. Just frightening to hear.

We had a good lunch. Sadly, Mary’s 98 year old mom has been diagnosed with cancer. She fought off breast cancer at 80, but has said no treatment this time. Even at 80 she said she was ready to go. She lives in Oregon and has been in a place much like where my mom was. Strangely, the facility told the family that she should be put in hospice now. If she gets sick and is taken to the hospital, the hospital will treat her. She has a DNR and a living will but somehow that doesn’t matter. Anyway, her mom is not in pain and has told the family she is ready. Mary is heading up there right after her trip to see her grandson in Chicago. Cheryl is busy, deciding that she will tile a couple of her end tables. Sounds like a very cool project.

I was watching the news and found that Hurricane Earl is headed for NC. Camille, a former colleague, lives in the mountains of NC after spending most of her life in Florida. She came to Tuba on a tour and stayed for almost 10 years. She lived through all hurricanes in Florida and headed home a several times in the middle of the school year to check on her house after a hurricane. Now she is in NC and now they are getting hurricanes. She must be some kind of magnet for them. Anyway, she is doing fine. She and her grown daughters and their hubbys took a very cool bus tour from Rapid City to Utah this summer. They had a great time and opted out coming to the rez while ‘out west’. We had a good talk and both wondered how I Care was doing. That is a parent involvement program Camille brought to TCBS and I became a cheerleader for. We were both asked to be presenters at their national conferences. Camille did a bunch, and I did three. It was a great time and we certainly helped the program grow. When I retired, they called, talked about continuing our relationship, and then never another call. Camille was much more involved, and when she retired she also never heard another word. We both agreed that we put a lot of energy into the program and were happy to be its cheerleaders. The strange part is that after our retirement, we suddenly didn’t exist anymore. We get the part that cheerleaders need to be in the school system. We are both curious as to why we never got a phone call, card, letter, note or something that said thanks for all your work with I Care, have fun in your new life, but I Care only uses active educators in its presentations. I have to say that the vast majority of I Care staff was Southern Blacks. The owner of the company was a math teacher before setting up I Care. He developed a parental involvement that really had no color barrier. His research held no matter the ethnic group. The Rez schools made it work with dorm aides. In the beginning of my BIA career I worked with a number of southern Black teachers and administrators. Many had been heavily recruited by the Bureau to come to the Rez after the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Most were very good at their jobs. Many stayed their entire careers on the Rez. While I worked side by side these teachers, there was always a distance I never understood. I will never forget the time I was headed to Flag one Saturday. A Black neighbor stopped by as I was getting ready to leave. She asked if I could pick up an order that was waiting for her at JC Penny’s. I told her I would be happy to. When I delivered the package the next day, she gave me $5 (in 1972 money) for my trouble. I tried to refuse it, but she insisted. I always felt guilty as it was not a big deal. I Care and the Flag trip seem to remind me that although I have always considered myself color-blind, many people don’t see the world that way. I don’t now, nor have I ever had a ‘black friendship’. Hmmm. I have always known Blacks since I was in college, just none that I considered I had a true friendship with. Is that something I should work on? Maybe.

Our Non-elected Governor has made it in the National News….again. Her shocking inability to make an opening statement has been all over the news. I am concerned about her health. I don’t agree with most of her political stands, but I hate to see any human being under so much stress. I hope that she has seen a medical professional regarding her very unusual behavior. I am not being sarcastic in this situation.

What a hot day in Flag…H—85°; L—39°; Relative Humidity (RL)—14%; and only a breeze of 8mph. It’s still summer during the day, and certainly fall at night in our little mountain desert town.

QUOTE FOR THE DAY

Gerald Good: If you want to turn your life around, try thankfulness. It will change your life mightily.

HOLY MACKEREL: 1752 This day never happened nor the next 10 as England adopts Gregorian Calendar. People riot thinking the gov’t stole 11 days of their lives.

SOMEWHAT USELESS INFORMATION—Clean Up Friday

§Queen Victoria's first act after her coronation (at age 18) was to remove her bed from her mother's room!

§Queen Berengaria of England, who married Richard I (the Lion-Hearted) in 1191, never lived in or even visited England. She was from Navarre, a region in Northern Spain. They met and were married during one of Richard’s campaigns.

§Mozart married Constanze Weber in 1782. He had first proposed to Constanze’s older sister, who had rejected his suit. In spite of this earlier proposal and financial difficulties, their marriage was a happy one until Mozart’s death in 1791 at the age of 35.

§Despite his reputation for being rude and angry, Beethoven had many friends and was well liked. More than 20,000 people attended his funeral.

GREY MATTER PUZZLE 1—Jeopardy Answers: Homonyms

$200-Hindu hierarchy or a play's actors

$400-Near or a purchase

$600-A fixed look, or Ginger Rogers' partner

$ DD-Didn't see the fog

$1000-Where ships dock or what a jury consists of

UNUSUAL NEWS ITEM

HELENA, Mont. — Two young goats wandered onto the thin ledge of a railroad bridge and spent nearly two days high above the ground until rescuers in a towering cherry picker plucked them from their perch, hungry but safe.

The rescue occurred Wednesday 60 feet above a little-trafficked rural roadway in southern Montana between Billings and Roundup, after a caller told the Rimrock Humane Society the goats were stranded on the 6-inch ledge.

The young female animals weighing 25 and 35 pounds mostly stayed on the angled ledge, even though there was a wider surface area on a pillar just a few feet away.

"The whole time, we thought they were going to fall off," said Sandy Church, humane society president. "These guys are just babies."

Church said it wasn't clear how the nimble-footed animals got into the predicament, but she speculated they wandered onto the ledge at night then froze after the sun rose and they discovered where they were.

A LITTLE LAUGH

The proud father brought home a backyard swing set for his children and immediately started to assemble it with all the neighborhood children anxiously waiting to play on it.

After several hours of reading the directions, attempting to fit bolt A into slot B, etc., he finally gave up and called upon an old handyman working in a neighboring yard.

The old-timer came over, threw the directions away, and in a short while had the set completely assembled.

It's beyond me," said the father, "how you got it together without even reading instructions."

"To tell the truth," replied the old-timer, "I can't read, and when you can't read, you've got to think."

GREY MATTER PUZZLE 2--Riddle

What do you need to open a door?

FOUND ON ‘YOU TUBE’

Frank and Tommy: Click Here to See and Hear!

GREY MATTER PICTURE

This is a close up of what object?

SOME CALENDAR INFORMATION

¤ Weekly Observances ¤

-9/4: Minority Enterprise Development Week

1-8: Self-University Week and International Enthusiasm Week

¤ Today’s Observances ¤

Skyscraper Day

National Lazy Mom's Day

Australia: Flag Day

Canada: Merchant Navy Remembrance Day

Monaco: Liberation Day

Qatar: Independence Day (1971 from UK)

San Marino: Founding Day celebrates the foundation of the Republic of San Marino in 301.

Taiwan: Armed Forces Day

Tunisia: Memorial Day (1934)

¤ Hit Songs on this date ¤

1892...The Old Folks at Home...Len Spencer

1902...Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home...Arthur Collins

1912...Ragtime Cowboy Joe...Bob Roberts

1942...Jingle Jangle Jingle...Kay Kyser

1952...Auf Wiederseh'n Sweetheart...Vera Lynn

1962...Sheila...Tommy Roe Click Here to Hear!

1972...Alone Again (Naturally)...Gilbert O'Sullivan

1982...Abracadabra...Steve Miller Band

¤ Today’s Births ¤

╬ THE ARTS

Kiran Desai, 39, author (The Inheritance of Loss, Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard), born New Delhi, India

Alison Lurie, 84, author (Foreign Affairs, The War Between the Tates), born Chicago, IL

Al Jardine, 68, rocker (Beach Boys-In My Room)…born Lima, OH

Mort Walker (Addison Morton Walker), 87, cartoonist (Beetle Bailey), born at El Dorado, KS

♦♦♦♦♦♦

Eileen Brennan, 73, actress (The Last Picture Show, Private Benjamin), born Los Angeles, CA

Mitzi Gaynor, 79, actress (South Pacific) …born Chicago IL

Alan Ladd, actor (Shane, Carpetbaggers, Boy on a Dolphin) …born 1913…Hot Springs, AR

Charlie Sheen (Carlos Irwin Estevez), 45, actor (Two and a Half Men, Wall Street, Platoon), born at New York, NY

Terry Wilson, Calif, actor (Bill-Wagon Train) …born 1923… Huntington Park,CA

╬ ATHLETICS

Cristobal Huet, 35, hockey player(Blackhawks, Canadiens, Capitals, Kings), born Saint-Martin-d’Héres, France

Damon Stoudamire, 37, basketball player (Raptors,Trail Blazers, Grizzlies, Spurs), born Portland, OR

╬ BUSINESS & EDUCATION

Edward Albert Filene, merchant, established US credit union movement …born 1860…Salem MA

Ferdinand Porsche, auto designer…born 1875…Maffersdorf near Reichenberg, Austria-Hungary (now Czech Republic)

╬ POLITICS

John Humphrey Noyes, founded Oneida Community (Perfectionists-socialist Utopians), coined term ‘free love’…born 1811… Brattleboro, VT

╬ SCIENCE & RELIGION

Louis Henri Sullivan, father of modern US architecture…born 1856… Boston MA

¤ Today’s Obituaries ¤

Frank Capra, director (It's a Wonderful Life), @ 94 in 1991

Oliver Cromwell, the Lord Protector of England, septicaemia @ 59 in 1658

e. e. cummings, poet, stroke @ 67 in 1962

James I, king of England (1603-25), @ 92 in 1658

Vince Lombardi, football coach, colon cancer @ 57 in 1970

Ho Chi Minh, North Vietnamese president, heart failure @ 79

Duncan Renaldo, actor (Cisco Kid), @ 80 in 1984

¤ Today’s Events ¤

╬ THE ARTS

1942 Frank Sinatra bid adieu to the Tommy Dorsey Band as he started his solo singing career.

1967 After 17 years, What’s My Line aired for the final time on CBS-TV

╬ ATHLETICS

1981 Longest game in Fenway Park, completed in 20, Mariners-8, Red Sox-7

╬ BUSINESS & EDUCATION

1833 NY Sun begins publishing (1st daily newspaper) cost a penny

╬ INDIGENOUS PEOPLE

523: Maya King Ahkal Mo' Naab' II is born. Eventually, he rules over Palenque, Mexico

1680: Don Antonio de Otermin is the Governor of the province which contains modern Santa Fe, New Mexico. The Pueblo Indians staged a revolt in August. Otermin enters Isleta Pueblo and discovers it is abandoned.

╬ POLITICS (US)

1783 Treaty of Paris signed (ending the US Revolutionary War)

1971 Watergate team breaks into Daniel Ellsberg's doctor's office

╬ POLITICS (International)

1189 England's King Richard I (the Lion-Hearted) crowned in Westminster

1852 Anti Jewish riots break out in Stockholm

1900 British annex Natal (South Africa)

╬ SCIENCE & RELIGION

1935 1st automobile to exceed 300 mph, Sir Malcolm Campbell (301.337 mph)

1964 Wilderness Act signed into law by President Lyndon B Johnson

GREY MATTER ANSWERS

↔ 1

Hindu hierarchy or a play's actors: What is caste/cast?

Near or a purchase: What is by/buy?

A fixed look, or Ginger Rogers' partner: What is a stare/Astaire?

Didn't see the fog: What is missed/mist?

Where ships dock or what a jury consists of: What is piers/peers?

↔ 2

The door needs to be closed!

↔ PICTURE

A wagon wheel

TODAY’S NATIONAL PARK PHOTO SHOTS

Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas. 19th National Park since March 4, 1921: The only National Park in an urban area, this smallest National Park is based around the natural hot springs that have been managed for public use. Bathhouse Row preserves 47 of these with many beneficial minerals.

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