Tuesday October 26

This is Week 43 of 2010►Day 299 with 66 days left.

FREE RAMBLING THOUGHTS

A new week begins with clouds, wind, more wind, and cooler temperatures; did I mention wind? Something is in the air, and I think it is going to snow real soon. My Blue Spruce is filled with brown ponderosa pine needles, as is my deck, my sidewalk, and our parking area. I am ready for a nice snowstorm, so that is not the bad part. The wind, as usual, is my problem. I keep telling myself that the wind is simply changing the weather, but that doesn’t work. The wind puts me on edge, keeps me on edge, and makes the day difficult. It will stop and the sooner the better.

A few months ago, I went to my dentist and the office manager, who had been there since I started going there—3 dentists ago—was not there. She had always been friendly, a little quirky, and after the first visit, always called me by name. I was told that she had retired. This seemed off at the time, since this is a small office with only one dentist and since she had been there forever, I would assume she would remain to train a new manager. They have a new manager, but she is a ‘manager’ who is not nearly as friendly and outgoing as the other lady. At some point I had given the other lady a business card so she could watch my trip videos. Well, this weekend, I found a message she left me on MySpace soon after she left. I sent her a friend request on FB, since I hardly ever go to MySpace anymore. She responded almost immediately. Turns out she didn’t ‘retire’ but had been ‘fired.’ I don’t have any of the details, but I am disappointed with my dentist’s explanation. A retirement, even when it is a forced one, there are cards, there is a party, and there are well wishers. Even patients are usually given an opportunity to sign a card, or some other way of wishing the person a happy future. Firing someone carries none of those benefits. Firing is tough, and I get that. There are many euphemisms for the act—let go, removed, … I know that patient’s don’t need to know the nitty-gritty, but honesty would have made me more comfortable. As a FB friend I’m sure I will hear the story, someday. We never met outside her workplace, and I don’t see any reason for that to change. But I am happy to know that she is doing well.

As I left my physician’s office last Friday, there were three cop cars outside the nearby bank. I later learned that the branch had been robbed while I was in the Drs. Office, less than a block away. Today another bank was robbed, this one a branch of my bank in East Flagstaff. The cops believe it may have been the same person at both banks. The downtown bank is in a mixed commercial/residential area of older expensive homes. There did not appear to be any cops roaming the neighborhood. The second bank is in a commercial district with low income housing and mobile home parks bordering the bank’s property. The local paper’s website mentioned that the police were in the area and walking the nearby area for suspicious behavior. I just found it odd that they didn’t do that in the ‘better’ neighborhood of the first robbery. Hmmmm.

Typhoon Megi hit Taiwan hard. It hit in an area we had been close to just a few weeks earlier. We were not on the mountain highway that collapsed, but we were within a few kilometers of it. So sad.

Flag…H—49°; L—29°; RH—71%; and 15mph wind with gusts to 35mph.

QUOTE FOR THE DAY—Samuel Ullman

Nobody grows old merely by living a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals. Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.

HOLY MACKEREL: 1964 Rolling Stones appear on the Ed Sullivan Show

SOMEWHAT USELESS INFORMATION—Firsts

→The first woman to hold the title of newspaper editor was Ann Franklin in 1762. She worked for The Newport Mercury in Newport, R.I.

→In 1779, Margaret Corbin was the first woman to be awarded a disability pension by US Congress. She fought in the Revolutionary War.

→On August 18, 1587, Virginia Dare was the first child born in the American colonies, on what is now Roanoke Island, North Carolina.

→Although thousands of patents had previously been issued, Samuel Hopkins was the first when numbering started. He patented a process in 1790 for making potash and pearl ashes.

→The first parachute jump was performed by Andre-Jacques Garnerin in 1797. He dropped from a balloon, about 6,500 ft. over Monceau Park in Paris in a 23-ft.-diameter parachute made of white canvas with a basket attached.

→In 1799, Count de Grisley was the first magician to perform the trick of sawing a woman in half.

GREY MATTER PUZZLE 1—Jeopardy Answers (1984 games) Travel

$200-This necessary document cost $10 in 1980, and was $35 in 1984

$400-Non-sexist name for a stewardess

$600-A vaccination is no longer required since this disease is eradicated

$800-Tags for luggage headed for this airport appropriately read "LAX"

$1000-Ship passengers are greeted & dunked by King Neptune 1st time they cross this

UNUSUAL NEWS ITEM

SYDNEY - Three people are on trial in Australia for allegedly telling people they'd been cursed then luring them to "prayer sessions" that involved sex, officials say. Tony Golossian, 62, Arthur Psichogios, 40, and his wife, Frances Psichogios, 39 have pleaded not guilty to charges, The (Sydney) Daily Telegraph reported Thursday.

Crown prosecutor Sarah Huggett said victims were told curses had been put on them and that to remove the curses they had to attend "prayer sessions" where they were blindfolded and sex took place. The women also received phone calls from "demonic voices," Huggett alleged. The fiancé of one of the victims also received similar calls telling him not to marry the woman, calls Hugget said were designed to isolate her. The man testified he broke up with his fiancée after the phone calls told him she was sleeping around, the jury in the black magic sex trial heard.

A LITTLE LAUGH

At a wedding I recently attended, the priest called for a moment of silence to remember the faithful dead...

As the church grew quiet, a little boy sitting in front of me turned to his father and said excitedly, "Dad, you have some of their albums!"

FOUND ON ‘YOU TUBE’

Typhoon Megi news report from Taipei: Click Here to View!

GREY MATTER PICTURE

This is a close up of what object?

SOME CALENDAR INFORMATION

¤ Weekly Observances ¤

24-31: Disarmament Week ^ Give Wildlife a Break Week ^ Pastoral Care Week ^ Peace, Friendship and Good Will Week ^ Prescription Errors Education & Awareness Week ^ International Magic Week ^ National Respiratory Care Week

27-11/3: World Hearing Aid Awareness Week

¤ Today’s Observances ¤

Worldwide Howl At The Moon Night

Austria: National Day (celebrates the anniversary of the Declaration of Neutrality in 1955)

Nauru: Angam Day (small Pacific Island): population has been threatened numerous times and this day celebrates the survival of the population)

Benin; Rwanda: Armed Forces Day

South Vietnam: Constitution & Republic Day (1955, 1956)

Switzerland: Flag Day

¤ Hit Songs on this date ¤

1893...Daisy Bell (A Bicycle Built for Two) / Dan Quinn

1903...Good-Bye, Eliza Jane / Arthur Collins

1913...Last Night Was the End of the World / Henry Burr Click Here to View!

1923...Yes! We Have No Bananas / Sam Lanin Click Here to View!

1933...The Last Round-Up / George Olsen Click Here to View!

1943…Pistol Packin' Mama / Al Dexter http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uESJlJAj7g

1953…St. George and the Dragonet / Stan Freberg Click Here to View!

1963…Sugar Shack / Jimmy Gilmer & the Fireballs Click Here to View!

1973…Midnight Train to Georgia / Gladys Knight & the Pips Click Here to View!

1983…Islands in the Stream / Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton Click Here to View!

¤ Today’s Births ¤

╬ THE ARTS

John Arden, novelist/playwright (Left Handed Liberty), born in 1939

Felix the Cat, cartoon character, born in 1917

Pat Conroy, 65, writer (The Prince of Tides, The Lords of Discipline)

Mahalia Jackson, gospel singer (Whole World in his Hands), born in 1911

Keith Urban, 41, country singer, born Whangarei, New Zealand

♦♦actors♦♦

Jackie Coogan, actor (Uncle Fester-Addams Family), boron in 1914

Tom Cavanagh, 42, actor (“Ed”)

Dylan McDermott, 48, actor (“The Practice”)

Jaclyn Smith, 63, actress (“Charlie’s Angels”), former Breck Girl

╬ ATHLETICS

Sasha Cohen, 26, figure skater

╬ BUSINESS & EDUCATION

John S Knight, WV, publisher (Knight-Rider), born in 1894

C.W. (Charles William) Post, cereal mogul; founder of Post cereals and products: Grape Nuts, Post Toasties, Postum, born in 1854

Jeff Probst, 48, TV personality (“Survivor”)

Abby (Greene Aldrich) Rockefeller, philanthropist: cofounder of NY Museum of Modern Art, born in 1874

Pat Sajak, 64, game show host (“Wheel of Fortune”)

╬ POLITICS

Hillary Rodham Clinton, 63, US Secretary of State, former US Senator (D, New York), former First Lady

Leon Trotsky, Russian revolutionary (pres of 1st Soviet), born in 1879

Francois Mitterand, President of France [1981-1995], born in 1916

╬ SCIENCE & RELIGION

Paul Farmer, 51, American Anthropologist

¤ Today’s Obituaries ¤

Hoyt Axton, American actor and country music singer-songwriter, heart failure @ 61 in 1999

Tony Hillerman, American writer @ 83 in 2008

William Paley, CEO (CBS), heart attack @ 89, in 1990

¤ Today’s Events ¤

╬ THE ARTS

1955 The Village Voice was first published.

1970 "Doonesbury" comic strip debuts in 28 newspapers

╬ ATHLETICS

1985 On a poor call in 6th game, umpire Don Deckinger starts a string of events costing Cardinals the 82nd World Series to the Brewers

1988 Donald Trump bills Mike Tyson $2,000,000 for 4 month advisory service

╬ BUSINESS & EDUCATION

1785 The first Spanish jacks [male donkeys] imported to the United States arrived in Boston

1825 Erie Canal between Hudson River & Lake Erie opened

1858 The rotary motion-washing machine was patented by Hamilton E. Smith of Pittsburgh

╬ INDIGENOUS PEOPLE

1676 Nathaniel Bacon dies. Leader of the "Virginia Rebellion," as it was then called, began in earnest, in 1674, a group of so-called "freeholders" on the Virginia frontier demanded that Native Americans living on treaty-protected lands be driven out or killed

1972 Guided tours of Alcatraz (by Park Service) begin

╬ POLITICS (US)

1868 White terrorists kill several blacks in St Bernard Parish La

1876 President sends federal troops to SC

1881 Shootout at the OK corral, in Tombstone, Az

1916 Margaret Sanger arrested for obscenity (advocating birth control)

1941 US savings bonds go on sale

╬ POLITICS (International)

1955 Ngo Dinh Diem proclaims Vietnam a republic with himself as pres

1956 UN's International Atomic Energy Agency statute approved

╬ SCIENCE & RELIGION

1957 Vatican Radio begins broadcasting

1984 "Baby Fae" gets baboon heart transplant, lives 21 days

GREY MATTER ANSWERS

↔ 1 Jeopardy

$200-This necessary document cost $10 in 1980, and was $35 in 1984: What is a Passport?

$400-Non-sexist name for a stewardess: What is a flight attendant?

$600-A vaccination is no longer required since this disease is eradicated: What is smallpox?

$800-Tags for luggage headed for this airport appropriately read "LAX": What is Los Angeles International?

$1000-Ship passengers are greeted & dunked by King Neptune 1st time they cross this: What is the equator?

↔ PICTURE

A post rock / fence post

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