This is Week 49 of 2010►Day 342 with 23 days remaining
17 Days until Christmas
Flagstaff Weather:
The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other.
FREE RAMBLING THOUGHTS
It was another nice day so I put out some outside decorations. I have a couple of entry door lighted trees and a lighted reindeer. I’m sure I’ll be putting out the icicle lights and tree lights tomorrow. I have some great Christmas music playing throughout the day. Gotta show that Christmas Spirit. I just hope they don’t get buried until May.
Mary had a very odd experience at her interview. When she arrived she was told she had to do a drug test. I get that—can’t have drug crazed meth addicts working with the infirm. They handed her the cup and pointed her to the bathroom. At the end of the interview she was told she didn’t pass the drug test. She asked why? The guy says, “I’m not a doctor, so if you want to work here you have to go to a walk in clinic within 24 hours, pay $60 and if you pass, bring in the results and we will start working on placement.” What I find odd is that while an employer has the right to require a drug test before and during employment; I don’t think that means some over-the-counter (OTC) drug test, performed and read by non-medical personnel. [When I was working we had to do random drug tests on our bus drivers. They had to take the first one at their own cost, and then each year, the government paid for the test. If the employee failed the test, they could take another test, at their cost to get a clean test. All the tests had to be done by a certified lab. The closest lab for most of the schools was Flagstaff.] Mary is not using illegal drugs of any kind. But when one hears that someone failed a drug test, it does lead to much speculation. She does take prescribed meds, like most of us. She had already listed all her meds, including OTC drugs, on her friggin’ application. Now she is in a quandary. If she doesn’t get the drug test, everyone she has told about her possible employment will wonder why she didn’t get hired. John had recommended her, and I’m sure the boss might make a slip when John asks about the interview and say the interview was good, but she didn’t pass the drug test. If Mary tells people about the less than scientific test, it looks like she is covering something. Most people I know would think that failing a drug test means they are using illegal drugs of some kind. Now I find out that employer with no medical background can refuse employment to anyone using prescribed medicine with results from an OTC kit. I really don’t think this was the intent of the law that made it acceptable for employers to require drug tests. This care giving business has certainly taken on a new light. One would think that they would want caregivers who follow their own doctor’s instructions. If not, they could have caregivers telling clients that it is OK to stop taking a certain med because it really doesn’t work that well. Very strange.
HOLY MACKEREL: 1962 Striking workers of the International Typographical Union closed nine New York City newspapers. The strike lasted 114 days, ending on April 1, 1963. A total of 5,700,000 readers were affected by the shutdown. It made people turn on radio and TV
∞ JEOPARDY PUZZLE—(SuperJeopardy Answers) from 1990 FAMOUS POLITICIANS
☼In his bid for an unprecedented 4th term, this NYC mayor was defeated in the 1989 Democratic Party
☼Ironically, the Arizona Democratic Party Organization was founded by his father & uncle
☼Tho this senate minority leader won the 1988 GOP Iowa caucauses, he lost the presidential nomination
☼This Minnesota congressman wrote the 1919 act that enforced prohibition
☼The 2 late sons of John D. Rockefeller Jr. who became governors
SOMEWHAT USELESS INFORMATION—Sharks Part 2
Each type of shark has a different shaped tooth depending on their diet. A shark may grow and use over 20,000 teeth in its lifetime! If one tooth is lost another spins forward from the rows and rows of backup teeth.
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A shark's skin is made of denticles instead of ordinary fish scales. The denticles are constructed like hard, sharp teeth and help to protect the shark from injury.
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Baby sharks are called pups. There are three ways that sharks are born: eggs are laid, eggs hatch inside the mother and then are born, or pup sharks grow inside the mother. Sharks can have from 1 to 100 babies at a time, depending on the type of shark.
UNUSUAL NEWS ITEM
Note: The Philippines is 90% Christian (with 80% of those-Roman Catholic) and 5-10% Muslim
MANILA, Philippines — Visitors to the Philippines may get smiles from airport immigration officials, but they shouldn't expect to hear "Merry Christmas."
Immigration Bureau Chief Ronaldo Ledesma says officers at passport counters are banned from offering Christmas greetings because they may be misconstrued as soliciting gifts or cash.
It is a tradition in the Philippines for children to offer Christmas wishes to solicit gifts from godparents and relatives. The practice has been hijacked by corrupt officials who sometimes use it as code for extortion requests.
Ledesma said Tuesday that a Christmas greeting, even if sincere, may sound like asking for a tip. Instead, he said officials should give a warm smile, and efficient service.
Ledesma's bureau has been criticized as a beehive of corruption, and he has promised to clean it up.
A LITTLE LAUGH
I was in my ‘wills and trusts’ course when the professor posed this question to the students: Why do people choose to have their children, rather than their siblings, inherit their estate?
After students offered various theories, one fellow raised his hand. "This may be a bit off the point," he said, "but when I was little, when my brother and sister finished playing with me, they would put me into a drawer."
FOUND ON ‘YOU TUBE’
From CNN—recalling John Lennon’s Last Day
The Last Interview with John Lennon, hours before he was assassinated.
CALENDAR INFORMATION
♦ Weekly Observances ♦
1-9: Chanukah (Hanukkah)
5-10: Clerc-Gallaudet Week
6-12: National Handwashing Awareness Week
♦ Today’s Observances ♦
Brownie Day: the food!
Take It In The Ear Day—means something about listening better ?
Bulgaria: National Students' Day
CARICOM and Cuba: CARICOM-Cuba Day, celebrate diplomatic ties between the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) (15 Caribbean nations are members with 5 associate members) and Cuba.
Guam: Lady of Camarin Day
Japan: Bodhi Day (Enlightenment of the Buddha)
Romania: Constitution Day
Spain, Panamá, Canal Zone: Mother's Day
Spain: School Reunion Day
Uruguay: Beaches Day/Family Day
Uzbekistan: Constitution Day (1992)
♫ University Fight Songs ♫
Click on Song Title to see and hear
♦Today’s Births♦
ARTS
Gregg Allman, 63, singer (The Allman Brothers band)
1832 Björnstjerne Björnson, novelist (Pa Guds Veje, Nobel-1903)
1925 Sammy Davis Jr, singer/dancer/actor (Ocean's 11, Candy Man)
James Galway, 71, flutist, born Belfast, Northern Ireland
1906 Richard Dafydd Vivian Llewellyn Lloyd, novelist (How Green Was My Valley) born in Middlesex, Wales
1943 Jim Morrison, singer (Doors)
Sinead O’Connor, 44, singer, songwriter, born Dublin, Ireland
1894 Elzie Segar cartoonist: creator of Popeye
1865 Jean Sibelius, Finish composer (Valse Triste, Finlandia)
1894 James (Grover) Thurber, humorist (Men, Women & Dogs, Secret Life of Walter Mitty)
1933 [Clerow] Flip Wilson Jr, comedian (Flip Wilson Show)
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Kim Basinger, 57, actress (Oscar for L.A. Confidential; Batman, The Natural)
1936 David Carradine, actor (Kung Fu, Mean Streets)
1911 Lee J Cobb, actor (Virginian, 12 Angry Men, On the Waterfront)
Teri Hatcher, 46, actress (“Desperate Housewives,” “Lois & Clark”)
1937 James MacArthur actor: Hawaii Five-O: Dano of “Book ’em, Dano”
Maximilian Schell, 80, actor (Deep Impact, Topkapi, Judgment at Nuremberg)
ATHLETICS
Dwight Howard, 25, Basketball (Magic)
BUSINESS & EDUCATION
Ann Coulter, 49, political commentator, author
1861 William Crapo Durant founded General Motors
POLITICS
1626 Christina queen of Swedenden who abdicated after becoming Catholic
SCIENCE & RELIGION
1508 Gemma Frisius [Jemme Reinersz] Frisian geographer/astronomer
1765 Eli Whitney inventor (Cotton Gin)
♦Today’s Obituaries♦
Bob Bell clown (WGN's 1st Bozo), @ 75 in 1997
Robert H Lawrence USAF/astronaut, flight training accident @ 32 in 1967
John Lennon assassinated @ 40 by Mark David Chapman in 1980
Carlotta Monti lover of WC Fields, @ 86 in 1993
Slim Pickins western actor (Blazing Saddles), after brain surgery @ 64 in 1983
Marty Robbins country singer, heart surgery complications @ 57 in 1982
Omar I 2nd kalief of Islam, murdered in 644
♦Today’s Events♦
ARTS
1813 Ludwig von Beethoven's 7th Symphony in A, premieres
1963 Frank Sinatra Jr. was kidnapped in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. He was set free three days later after his father paid a $240,000 ransom with no questions asked.
ATHLETICS
1955 Brooklyn catcher Roy Campanella wins his 3rd MVP Award
1994 Darryl Strawberry indicted on tax evasion charges
BUSINESS & EDUCATION
1931 Coaxial cable patented
1936 NAACP files suit to equalize the salaries of black & white teachers
1997 A $25 billion deal: Swiss Bank and Union Bank of Switzerland announced a plan to form a single bank with assets of well over half a trillion dollars. The combined group would be called the United Bank of Switzerland and would become the world’s biggest money manager.
INDIGENOUS PEOPLE
1780 John Sevier, and volunteers from North Carolina, soundly defeat the Chickamauga Cherokees in a fight at Boyd's creek, Tennessee.
1829 In his first "State of the Union Address," President Andrew Jackson will state his goal to remove all Indians in the southeastern part of the United States to lands west of the Mississippi. A law to that effect would pass Congress on May 28, 1830.
POLITICS (US)
1776 George Washington's retreating army crosses Delaware River from New Jersey
POLITICS (International)
1880 5,000 armed Boers gather in Paardekraal South-Africa
SCIENCE & RELIGION
1854 Pope Pius IX proclaims Immaculate Conception, makes Mary, free of Original Sin
1863 Jesuit Church of La Compana in Santiago Chile catches fire, 2,500 die in panic
1909 Bird banding society found
1966 US & USSR sign treaty to prohibit nuclear weapons in outer space
ANSWERS
∞ JEOPARDY
In his bid for an unprecedented 4th term, this NYC mayor was defeated in the 1989 Democratic Party
Who was Ed Koch?
Ironically, the Arizona Democratic Party Organization was founded by his father & uncle
Who is Barry (AUH2O) Goldwater?
Tho this senate minority leader won the 1988 GOP Iowa caucuses, he lost the presidential nomination
Who was Bob Dole?
This Minnesota congressman wrote the 1919 act that enforced prohibition
Who was Volstead?
The 2 late sons of John D. Rockefeller Jr. who became governors
Who were Nelson (NY) and Winthrop (AR)?
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