Wednesday Sept. 8

This is Week 36 of 2010►Day 251 with 114 days left.

FREE RAMBLING THOUGHTS

I’m packed and ready to go. All that is left is a few last minute things tomorrow morning. Therefore this will be the last blog until I return. They should return on October 1st. This is going to be a great adventure. So much to see, so many things to do. I spoke to my roommate on the trip this afternoon. He too is ready for an adventure. This is his first trip with a really long plane ride. He has done Alaska, the Caribbean, and Hawaii. He is my age, a retired Baptist minister who retired early when his wife got sick. He lost her about two years ago. It should be an exciting trip.

I was shocked tonight when I turned on the computer and found that the canyons just outside Boulder CO are on fire. Forty years ago, I spent a lot of time in those canyons. Back then, the canyons might have had a few very old cabins and a few houses built in the 30’s. Most of the canyon was unfenced uninhabited wilderness. You could pull of the road and find a nice place to eat a lunch, have a campfire, maybe pitch a tent. There were plenty of places to have a beer bust too. From the scenes I saw, Fourmile Canyon is now little more than houses on small plots of land up and down the mountain. These are not the small cabins or houses I was used to seeing. Towns grow and spread and it sure looks like Boulder has done that up through the many canyons below the Flatirons. I sure feel sorry for all those people who have to leave this beautiful part of Colorado. I’m sure the land and the homes came at a premium price, before the housing market crashed. It is hard to rebuild when you paid $500K for your house and now it is appraised at $350K and the bank still wants whole amount. Flagstaff residents are so fortunate that our huge fire this summer didn’t destroy any homes.

I am still hopeful that the Gainesville Center will decide not to burn the Koran’s on Saturday. The only ray of hope is that the leader of the cult has said he heard what General Petraeus had said and that he was praying about it. He said he is waiting for a sign from God to tell him to stop, if that is God’s Will. I certainly hope he gets that sign, real soon. He has given himself a face-saving out and that is better than what was happening just yesterday.

Flag…H—73°; L—46°; RH—43%; and only a breeze of 6mph—which doesn’t tell the story at all. This morning at 6am it was nice outside, a little cloudy, but not a bad walk. Along about 8am the clouds suddenly burst and we had a hard, steady rain for about 45 minutes. There was a little thunder and lightning, but mostly just lots of water. After the rain stopped, the sun came out, and within an hour the streets were again dry. We had some clouds most of the day, but otherwise, it was nice.

QUOTE FOR THE DAY

Daniel J. Boorstin-The traveler was active; he went strenuously in search of people, of adventure, of experience. The tourist is passive; he expects interesting things to happen to him. He goes "sight-seeing."

HOLY MACKEREL: 1892 The Pledge of Allegiance to the United States of America was written by a former Baptist preacher, Francis Bellamy. It only took Mr. Bellamy three hours to write the original 23 words in honor of the 400th anniversary of Columbus discovering America.

SOMEWHAT USELESS INFORMATION: Ancient History

▬The first capital of ancient Egypt was Memphis, a city whose name can be roughly translated into English as "White Walls."

▬On his way home from the siege of Miletus, Julius Caesar was captured by pirates and held hostage for about forty days. Caesar insisted that his captors double their ransom demand (he was, after all, an aristocrat) and promised to return and punish them. True to his word, Caesar returned after his release, hunted the pirates down, and had them crucified.

▬Ancient Greek civilization is believed to have originated on the island of Crete. It is unclear when the island was first settled, but there are archeological remains dating as far back as 5000 B.C.

▬Of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, only one remains: the Great Pyramid of Giza.

▬Anaximander, a philosopher from Miletus who lived during the first half of the 6th century B.C., is credited with making the first map of the known world around 540 B.C.

GREY MATTER PUZZLE 1—Jeopardy Answers: Starts with ‘Q’

$100-Klugman's coroner

$200-Hugo's hunchback

$300-"To be or not to be"

$400-Oldest city in Canada

$500-Popular name of the Religious Society of Friends

UNUSUAL NEWS ITEM—Great, this is where I’m headed

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — A Malaysian was jailed for six months and fined 190,000 ringgit ($61,000) for trying to smuggle dozens of snakes out of the country, a sentence that conservationists said was too light. Anson Wong, already convicted of trafficking in wildlife in the United States in 2001, pleaded guilty last week and will start his sentence on Sept. 13.

Under Malaysian law, Wong could have faced seven years in jail and fines of up to 100,000 ringgit ($32,000) for each snake up to a maximum of a million ringgit ($320,000US) or both.

Wong was detained when in transit from the Malaysian island state of Penang to the Indonesian capital Jakarta on Aug. 26 when staff at Kuala Lumpur airport were alerted to a bag that had broken while on a conveyor belt. They found 95 boa constrictors, two rhinoceros vipers and a matamata turtle inside the bag.

The U.S. Department of Justice said Wong had pleaded guilty to a trafficking in the United States in 2001 and was sentenced to 71 months in jail.

TRAFFIC, a wildlife trade monitoring organization, said the sentence indicated unwillingness by Malaysian courts to get tough with real wildlife criminals and to show the world it was serious about wildlife trafficking.

"This is a tragedy. It clearly tells wildlife traffickers that they have little to fear from Malaysian law," said TRAFFIC's Southeast Asia regional director, William Schaedla.

The prosecuting officer said he would discuss with other government authorities whether to appeal the court's ruling and seek a tougher sentence.

A LITTLE LAUGH

Back in the days of the Roman Empire, the famous Emperor Nero instituted a new game. The players would take those little disks you set your glass on in order to protect the furniture, and see who could get the most distance rolling them across the floor.

They were the first roller coasters. Back in those days, the disks were made of iron, and they would bet on whose disk would roll the farthest.

They called them ferrous wheels.

GREY MATTER PUZZLE 2--Riddle

A blue man lives in a blue house. A green man lives in a green house. Who lives in a white house?

FOUND ON ‘YOU TUBE’

Quebec City: See It Here!

GREY MATTER PICTURE

This is a close up of what object?

SOME CALENDAR INFORMATION

¤ Weekly Observances ¤

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

5-11: National Waffle Week AND Suicide Prevention Week AND National Payroll Week

¤ Today’s Observances ¤

National Date Nut Bread Day

National Pardon Day

International Literacy Day

Peregean Spring Tides

Rosh Hashanah

World Physical Therapy Day

Andorra : National Day )

Lichfield, England : Sheriff's Ride Ceremony (1533)

Malta : Commemoration of Regatta Day/Commemoration of 2 Sieges (1565)

Mauritius : Mid Autumn Festival

North Korea : National Day (Established Govt) (1948)

South Korea : Thanksgiving Day

Uganda : Republic Day (1967)

¤ Hit Songs on this date ¤

1907...I Pagliacci - Vesti La Giubba (On With the Party)…Enrico Caruso Click Here to Hear It!

1927...Russian Lullaby…Roger Wolfe Kahn

1937...So Rare…Guy Lombardo

1947…Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette)…Tex Williams

1957…Diana…Paul Anka

1967…Ode to Billie Joe…Bobbie Gentry

1977…Best of My Love…The Emotions

1987…La Bamba…Los Lobos Click Here to Hear It!

¤ Today’s Births ¤

╬ THE ARTS

Antonín Leopold Dvořák, composer (New World Symphony) …born 1841…Nelahozeves, Czech

Pink, 31, singer, born Alecia Moore at Doylestown, PA

Jimmie Rodgers, country singer/singing brakeman …born 1897… Mendoza MS

♦♦♦♦♦♦

Sid Caesar, 88, comedian, actor (“Your Show of Shows”), born Yonkers, NY

Patsy Cline (Virginia Petterson Hensley), Country Music Hall of Famer: Crazy, I Fall to Pieces …born 1932…Winchester, PA

Peter Sellers, England, actor (not now, Kato, Bobo, Pink Panther) …born 1925… Portsmouth, England

╬ ATHLETICS

Ken (Kenneth Roth) Forsch, 64, baseball: pitcher: Houston Astros [all-star: 1976], California Angels [all-star: 1981] …born Sacramento, CA

L.C. Greenwood, 64, football: Steelers defensive end: Super Bowl IX, X, XIII, XIV…born Canton, MS

Latrell Sprewell, 40, basketball (Warriors, Knicks, Timberwolves), born Milwaukee, WI

╬ BUSINESS & EDUCATION

--

╬ POLITICS

Lyndon LaRouche, 88, American presidential candidate (1980) …born Rochester, NH

Claude (Denson) Pepper, U.S. Senator from Florida [1936-1950]; member of Congress for fourteen terms; champion of social welfare for the elderly …born 1900.…Dudleyville, AL

╬ SCIENCE & RELIGION

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¤ Today’s Obituaries ¤

Bud Collyer. TV emcee (Beat the Clock, To Tell the Truth), @ 61 in 1969

Dorothy Danridge. actress, dies @ 41 in Hollywood in 1965

Huey P Long (Sen-La). assassinated at Baton Rouge Capitol building in 1935

¤ Today’s Events ¤

╬ THE ARTS

1930 1st appearance of the comic strip "Blondie"

1952 Ernest Hemingway's "Old Man & the Sea" published

1966 "Star Trek" premiers on NBC-TV

╬ ATHLETICS

1972 Jim Ryun (US) & Billy Fordjour (Ghana) collide & fall in qualifying competitions for 1,500m finals, ending Ryan's chances for gold

╬ BUSINESS & EDUCATION

1553 City of Lichfield, England established

1930 NYC public schools begin teaching Hebrew

╬ INDIGENOUS PEOPLE

1535 Cartier reaches Stadacone, where the modern city Quebec is located.

╬ POLITICS (US)

1771 Mission San Gabriel Archangel forms in California

1858 Lincoln makes a speech about when you can fool people

1974 Pres Gerald Ford pardons former Pres R Nixon of all federal crimes

╬ POLITICS (International)

1565 Turkish siege of Malta broken by Maltese & Knights of St John

╬ SCIENCE & RELIGION

1866 James and Jennie Bushnell became the proud parents of sextuplets in Chicago, IL. Three boys and three girls were born. Though two babies died, the surviving four lived long lives. This was the first recorded birth of sextuplets.

GREY MATTER ANSWERS

↔ 1

$100-Klugman's coroner: Who is Quincy?

$200-Hugo's hunchback: Who is Quasimodo?

$300-"To be or not to be": What is the Question?

$400-Oldest city in Canada: What is Quebec?

$500-Popular name of the Religious Society of Friends: Who are the Quakers?

↔ 2

The President!

↔ PICTURE

Frozen soft drink in a bottle

TODAY’S NATIONAL PARK PHOTO SHOTS

Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, 24th National Park since date February 26, 1929: Grand Teton is the tallest mountain in the Teton Range. The park's Jackson Hole valley and reflective piedmont lakes contrast with the tall mountains, which abruptly rise from the glacial sage-covered valley.

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