Christmas is a necessity. There has to be at least one day of the year to remind us that we're here for something else besides ourselves.
FREE RAMBLING THOUGHTS
Our retirement group had lunch at Little America today. It was the first resort hotel in Flagstaff, back in the day. Our AZTESOL group used their conference facilities many times. Over the years it has met with competition. It is still very nice. The old coffee shop is gone. The buffet lunch is gone. We did have a nice menu lunch though. I still need to go back over there at night, as they have one of Flagstaff’s best light displays. They have always had a high end gift shop and with the coffee shop gone, the gift shop is a little larger. It has always had a western theme with cowboy, wildlife, and Native items. Sadly, they have dropped most of their Native items for clearly marked ‘made in China’ items. Why any high end tourist would want to buy cheap imitations is beyond me. Somehow I don’t think the plastic dream catchers with blue plastic beads are going to do their job.
I was concerned when I saw how the US stood up in reading to other countries. Now for the math scores—we are 31st and 19 points below the average score. The children of these nations scored higher than our students, in order of scores: Shanghai-China , Singapore, Hong Kong-China, Republic of Korea, Chinese Taipei, Finland, Liechtenstein, Switzerland , Japan, Canada, Netherlands, Macao-China, New Zealand, Belgium, Australia, Germany, Estonia, Iceland, Denmark, Slovenia, Norway, Slovak Republic, France, Austria, Poland, Sweden, Czech Republic, United Kingdom, Hungary, and Luxembourg. The one upside to all this is that since the American schools are not teaching geography and very little history, most of the American kids couldn’t find most of these nations on a globe. Even more disturbing, many teachers and other adults can’t find them either. As we move more and more to computers for our information, our social networking, our shopping, and other daily events do we not know that all this stuff is based on complex series of 1’s and 0’s? Our governor just announced that there will be even bigger cuts in education during her term.
This healthcare mess is hitting AZ very hard. Our governor announced today that many of the AHCCCS patients are being denied transplants due to the cost of the transplants. First, AHCCCS is the AZ form of Medicaid. While the voluntary Medicaid program was first developed in 1965, it was not available across all states until 1982 when good ol’ AZ finally set up AHCCCS system—which is ironically pronounced ‘access’. Our governor’s reasoning for stopping transplants is that ‘these procedures are expensive and voluntary…and are available in Cadillac health care programs. To be eligible for AHCCCS I would have to have an income of $903 or less/month; a married couple would have to have an income less than $1215/month; and a family would add $300 per child to the $1215/month. The AHCCCS participants are living in poverty and it doesn’t seem to me that any of them could afford any insurance, let alone a Cadillac plan. Many ACHHHS patients are on transplant lists. I have always been a ‘quality over quantity’ of life person. Spending $200 or $200K to give a patient another few months bed ridden does not make sense to me. However, to give a person another 5-10 years of active living does make sense. Worse yet for the transplant denied patients is that while they are living productive lives, they had been told they would be getting the needed transplant. Then with the swipe of a pen, they were told they were no longer eligible. One poor man had gotten a call that a liver was available. He headed for the hospital, and while his family was arriving, he was being prepped for surgery. It was then, and only then, that the hospital bean counter came in with the list of forms and told him that he would need to cough up $250K because AHCCS had just informed her that the patient was no longer eligible for the AHCCCS payments. He didn’t have the money, so he got dressed and went home. I’m sure the rest of the story will be that he will be billed for prep work and that AHCCCS will not pay, since no surgery actually took place. Where is the humanity?
HOLY MACKEREL: 1936 King Edward VIII abdicates throne to marry Mrs Wallis Simpson, England replaces King Edward VIII stamp series
∞ JEOPARDY PUZZLE—(SuperJeopardy Answers) from 1990 "H"ISTORY
☼This Communist revolutionary founded the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in 1945
☼Janos Kadar assumed power in this country after a revolt was suppressed by Soviet tanks
☼Although this British general opposed coercion in North America, he led troops at the Battle of Bunker Hill
☼In 29 A.D. lava from Mt. Vesuvius buried this city named for its mythical founder
☼This Medieval confederacy of N. German cities was formed to defend their mutual trading interests
SOMEWHAT USELESS INFORMATION—
The first president to decorate the White House Christmas tree in the United States was Franklin Pierce.
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‘Hot cockles’ was a popular game at Christmas in medieval times. Players took turns striking a blindfolded player, who had to guess the name of the person delivering each blow.
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Child singer Jimmy Boyd was 12-years-old when he sang the Christmas favorite "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus."
UNUSUAL NEWS ITEM
CENTRAL FALLS, R.I. — An alligator is taking the heat for sparking an apartment fire in Rhode Island.
Firefighters that responded to a Central Falls, R. I. home got more than they bargained for. Inside the second floor apartment was a three-foot alligator, a 10-foot Burmese python, two other 10-foot snakes, a smaller snake and a large iguana.
The tenant blamed the alligator for starting a small fire, claiming the reptile knocked over a small heating lamp.
“The alligator usually knocks it over, but it usually just shuts off. This time it didn’t shut off,” said Jesus Romero, the reptile owner.
The tenants who live below the animal house said they called 911 when they smelled smoke. They said they are angry about all the reptiles.
“We don’t live in South Africa. We live in Central Falls, Rhode Island, that shouldn’t even be taking place at all,” said Michelle Florez, a tenant.
“I won’t let them get out of the room. I make sure I take care of them,” said Romero.
Firefighters have confirmed the fire started when a heating lamp made contact with the alligator’s plastic kiddie pool.
The housing authority is now investigating whether it is legal for the animals to live there.
A LITTLE LAUGH
Every morning, I do a mad dash to drop off my son Tyler at day care so I can get to work on time. My impatience hit home one morning when he piped up from the back of the car, "Our car is really fast and everyone else's is slow because they're all idiots, right, Mom?"
FOUND ON ‘YOU TUBE’ Returns tomorrow
DAYBOOK INFORMATION
♦ THIS WEEK ♦
5-10: Clerc-Gallaudet Week
6-12: National Handwashing Awareness Week
10-17: Human Rights Week
♦ TODAY IS… ♦
Dewey Decimal System Day
Festival for The Souls Of Dead Whales
Human Rights Day
International Animal Rights Day
National Salesperson Day
Nobel Prize Day (1896: obit of Alfred)
World Freedom Day
Khmer Republic: Rights of Man Day
Thailand: Constitution Day (1932)
US: Mississippi (Ojibwa for ‘Great River’) : Admission Day (1817 as 20th state)
US: Wyoming: Wyoming Day (women's suffrage) (1869)
♫ Academy Awards Best Original Song ♫
Click on Song Title to see and hear
Note: some of these clips work up to the song but it will be there!
♦Today’s Births♦
ARTS
1830 Emily Dickinson, poet (Collected Poems)
1824 George MacDonald Scottish sci-fi author (Lilith, Princess & Curdie)
1903 - Mary Norton author: children’s books: Bedknobs and Broomsticks, The Borrowers
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1928 - Dan Blocker actor: Bonanza
Kenneth Branagh, 50, actor (Shackleton), director (Hamlet, Henry V), born Belfast, Northern Ireland
Susan Dey, 58, model, actress (“The Partridge Family,” “LA Law,”)
1923 - Harold Gould actor: Romero, Dream Chasers, Seems Like Old Times, Kenny Rogers as the Gambler, The Sting, Rhoda, Under One Roof, The Golden Girls, Spencer,Singer & Sons, He & She, The Feather and Father Gang
Tommy Kirk, 69, actor: Pajama Party, Son of Flubber, The Absent-Minded Professor, The Swiss Family Robinson, The Shaggy Dog, Old Yeller, Bikini Beach
1914 Dorothy Lamour [Mary (Leta Dorothy Slaton) Kaumeyer], actress (Road to Bali, Greatest Show on Earth)
1941 - Tommy Rettig actor: Lassie
ATHLETICS
Steve (Steven) Renko, 66, baseball: pitcher: Expos, Cubs, White Sox, Athletics, Red Sox, Angels, Royals
BUSINESS & EDUCATION
1851 Melville [Louis K] Dewey created Dewey Decimal System for libraries
1911 Chet Huntley, newscaster (NBC Huntley-Brinkley Report)
POLITICS
Rod Blagojevich, 54, former Governor of Illinois
SCIENCE & RELIGION
1894 Earnest Haenchen German new testament expert
♦Today’s Obituaries♦
Freeman "Amos" Gosden US radio actor (Amos 'n' Andy), @ 83 in 1982
Eugene McCarthy, U.S. Senator, Presidential candidate @ 89 in 2005
Alfred Nobel Swedish Nobel Prize ceremony on this date, @ 63 in 1896
Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor III, American comedian and actor cardiac arrest @ 65 in 2005
Otis Redding singer (Dock of Bay), plane crash @ 26 in 1967
Red Cloud (Maȟpíya Lúta)), Oglala Lakota (Sioux) Chief @ 87 in 1909
Otogaki Rengetsu zen nun/benefactress of Tessai, @ 84 in 1875
Damon Runyon US journalist/writer (Guys & Dolls), throat cancer @ 66 in 1946
Fulton J Sheen archbishop/religious broadcaster (Life is Worth Living), heart attack @ 84 in 1979
♦Today’s Events♦
Nobel Prizes Awarded today..a sampling only
1911 Marie Curie for Chemistry
1930 Sinclair Lewis Literature
1938 Enrico Fermi Physics
1938 Pearl S. Buck Literature
1948 T. S. Eliot Literature
1953 Winston Churchill Literature
1950 1st black American awarded Peace - Ralph J Bunche
1952 Albert Schweitzer Peace
1964 Dr Martin Luther King Jr Peace Prize
1966 Israeli Shmuel Yosef Agnon literature
1979 Mother Teresa Peace
1983 Danuta Walesa, wife of Lech Walesa, accepts his Peace Prize
1984 South African Bishop Desmond Tutu Peace
1986 Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel Peace
1994 Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres & Yasser Arafat Peace
2009 Barack Obama Peace
ARTS
1991 IM Pei receives $5 million for design of Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
ATHLETICS
1810 The first interracial, title boxing bout was staged at Copthall Common in England. An American, Tom Molineaux, lost to Tom Cribb on a fluke punch. The fight went 40 rounds!
BUSINESS & EDUCATION
1953 With an investment of $7,600, Hugh Hefner published the first Playboy magazine.
1986 Exxon announced the sale of its Manhattan landmark, the 53-story Exxon Building, to a Japanese real estate developer.
INDIGENOUS PEOPLE
1834 William Marshall, representing the United States, and Potawatoomi Indians will sign a treaty today at Tippecanoe. Six sections of land will be traded annual payments of $1000, and a small amount of supplies.
1836 The second part of the fifth group of "friendly" Creeks, approximately 1600 in number, arrive at Fort Gibson, in eastern Indian Territory. The total of both groups will be 2237.
POLITICS (US)
1971 William H Rehnquist confirmed as Supreme Court justice
POLITICS (International)
1941 Japanese troops overrun Guam
1948 UN General Assembly adopts Universal Declaration of Human Rights
1965 Dutch ends economic boycott of Rhodesia
1983 Raul Alfonsin inaugurated as Argentina's 1st civilian president
SCIENCE & RELIGION
1984 1st "planet" outside our solar system discovered
1995 Worst snowstorm in Buffalo history, 37.9" in 24 hours
ANSWERS
∞ JEOPARDY
☼This Communist revolutionary founded the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in 1945
Who was Ho Chi Minh?
☼Janos Kadar assumed power in this country after a revolt was suppressed by Soviet tanks
What is Hungary?
☼Although this British general opposed coercion in North America, he led troops at the Battle of Bunker Hill
Who was (William) Howe?
☼In 29 A.D. lava from Mt. Vesuvius buried this city named for its mythical founder
What is Herculaneum?
☼This Medieval Confederacy of N. German cities was formed to defend their mutual trading interests
What is the Hanseatic League?
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