7 April 2010~~Week 15 of 2010: 97 days this year…268 days remain
‡ Scottish Proverbs
Friends are lost by calling often and calling seldom.
Ne'er cast a clout till May be oot. (Don't put aside winter clothing until May be out. But Scottish weather isn't that cold In this context, "May" is the Mayflower or Hawthorn, which blooms well before the end of May).
• Holy Mackerel: On this day in 1864 ►The first camel race in America was held, not in the Mojave Desert; but in Sacramento, California
‡ Free Ramblings
My allergy doctor was in a great mood this morning. He readily admits he has no idea why I have my occasional angioedema (swelling on face). Since this started a couple of years ago, I have been taking both Allegra and Singulair every day and then another medicine when the actual swelling starts. Now he says to try dropping the Singulair. I’m up for that. Less pills is always better than more pills. He did say he could run a bunch of blood tests but since my swelling is so unpredictable it would just be a waste of time and money. Good for him.
It was windy in Flag, but not nearly like yesterday. Today our wind gusts were a mere 22mph. We only made it to 44° and the wind dropped that by about 8°. Not a lot of snow melted, and my front bush is slowly starting to stand up again. We are headed for 60° by Friday, if the weather guy can be trusted. That should just about melt the snow that is left in my front area.
So many people are misusing technology. Nothing new there. Faux News ran a series of stories on Acorn last year. They gave the impression that Acorn was involved in helping develop prostitution rings in California. Turns out those stories were an important part of the reason Congress cut all funding to Acorn. This week the Attorney General of CA released the unedited tapes he had subpoenaed so he could prosecute those Acorn employees involved in smuggling underage girls from Mexico to become prostitutes and helping a pimp and his madam get government subsidized housing. The AG’s report now states that the Faux News story was highly edited and in no way showed what had really happened. No charges will be filed against any California Acorn employee AND he found that two of the fired employees had actually gotten good information from the fake prostitute and fake pimp and had called the police with all the information as soon as they left the office. In addition, the Faux News story showed the pimp looking like Huggy Bear from Starsky and Hutch’s TV show. Oh no he din’t. That look was taken outside the office at another time, and while they were in the office, the pimp was dressed in a pin stripe shirt and slacks, the prostitute was wearing a regular looking blouse and slacks. I hope anyone who watches Faux News realizes that it is exactly that…faux. In another story today, a Phoenix HS was put on lockdown after a cop shot a man wielding a knife in a nearby apartment complex. The Scotsdale cop at the scene didn’t like where the camera man was standing, even though it was legal for him to be standing there. He approached the camera and covered the lens with his hand and pushed the journalist back. Amazing. The female on-air reporter that she and the station have a good relation with the local police and the camera covering officer was probably just tense due to the fact that it was a police involved shooting. The entire shooting and lockdown had occurred a good hour before the incident. Technology gets us to many places, it’s people who stop us.
‡ A Quick Smile …about walking and exercise
~ Walking can add minutes to your life. This enables you at 85 years old to spend an additional 5 months in a nursing home at $7000 per month.
~ I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me.
~ The only reason I would take up walking is so that I could hear heavy breathing again.
~ I have to walk early in the morning, before my brain figures out what I'm doing.
~ Every time I hear the dirty word 'exercise', I wash my mouth out with chocolate.
~ I do have flabby thighs, but fortunately my stomach covers them.
~ The advantage of exercising every day is so when I die, they'll say, 'Well, he looks good doesn't he.'
~ If you are going to try cross-country skiing, start with a small country.
~ We all get heavier as we get older, because there's a lot more information in our heads. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
‡ Random Fact
40% of all people snoop in your medicine cabinet at a party
‡ Puzzle
State Mottos: Name the state with this motto
1. The Crossroads of America
2. Qui transtulit sustinet, He who transplanted sustains
3. Excelsior, Ever upward
4. Alis volat propriis, She flies with her own wings
5. Liberty and Independence
‡ Side Show Stories
Daily Mail: Under the government's Local Housing Authority, Essma Marjam, age 34, unemployed and the mother of six, is entitled to rental assistance for a five-bedroom home, and the only suitable one she could find is in an exclusive London suburb in which her neighbor is Sir Paul McCartney. Luckily, the generous allowance (equivalent of more than $9,000 a month) covers the rent on the nearly $3 million (U.S. equivalent) mansion. (Additionally, according to the Daily Mail, Marjam's non-housing government benefits total the equivalent of about $22,000 a year.)
‡ Calendar Information
• Observance Weeks in April•
1-7
International Pooper-Scooper Week
Laugh at Work Week
Golden Rule Week
Medication Safety Week
Testicular Cancer Awareness Week
4-10
Hate Week: taken from George Orwell’s 1984
Hilo, HI. Hula Festival: Cultural event honoring King David Kalakaua, culminates with the world’s largest hula competition
National Blue Ribbon Week: to raise awareness of the annual 3.2 million abused children
National Public Health Week
National Work Zone Safety Awareness Week
National Week of the Ocean: to raise awareness of the ocean’s role on our planet
5-10
Explore Your Career Options
5-11
National Networking Week
National Women's Nutrition Week
• 7 April Observances—US/UN/World •
No Housework Day
ASPCA (American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) Day
International Beaver Day: to bring awareness of the vegetarian rodent that saves wetlands
Metric System Day: for awareness of the system Americans just won’t adopt
National Day of Hope: for awareness to end child abuse
Paraprofessional Appreciation Day
World Health Day: World Health Organization founded in 1948
•7 April Observances—by country •
China : Ching Ming - families gather at graves of ancestors
Rwanda: Commemorates massacres of 1994.
•Number One Songs in…
1945 ►My Dreams are Getting Better All the Time - The Les Brown Orchestra (vocal: Doris Day)
1953 ►Pretend - Nat King Cole
1961 ►Don’t Worry - Marty Robbins
1969 ►Aquarius/Let the Sun Shine In - The 5th Dimension
1977 ►Dancing Queen - Abba
1985 ►We are the World - USA for Africa
•7 April Happenings•
In The Arts
1949 ►Rodgers and Hammerstein debut their hit musical "South Pacific" on Broadway.
In Athletics
1963 ►Jack Nicklaus became the youngest golfer to win the Green Jacket at the MastersTournament @23
In Business or Education
1940 ►1st black to appear on US stamp (Booker T Washington)
In Politics
1712 ►Slave revolt (New York NY)
1830 ►President Jackson has submitted a bill that would call for the removal of most of the Indians in the southeast to lands west of the Mississippi.
1926 ►Mussolini's Irish wife breaks his nose
1954 ►President Dwight Eisenhower fears "domino-effect" in Indo-China
1971 ►President Richard Nixon orders Lieutenant Calley (My Lai) free
In Science/Religion
1827 ►English chemist John Walker invents wooden matches
1983 ►Oldest human skeleton, aged 80,000 years, discovered in Egypt
1994 ►Vatican acknowledges Holocaust (Nazi's killing Jews) for 1st time
• 7 April Births •
Artists, Writers, and Composers
Francis Ford Coppola, 71, filmmaker
Daniel Ellsberg, 79, author
Percy Faith, 1908, Grammy Award-winning orchestra leader, composer
Walter Winchell, 1897, newscaster/columnist
William Wordsworth, 1770, England, poet laureate (The Prelude)
Athletes
Walter Camp, 1859, father of American football (Yale)
Anthony Drew (Tony) Dorsett, 56, Hall of Fame football player
James ‘Buster’ Douglas, 50, boxing champion
Steve Wisniewski, 43, NFL guard (Raiders)
Entertainers
Victoria Adams Beckman, 35, "Posh Spice"
Jackie Chan, 56, martial artist, actor
Russell Crowe, 46, actor
James Garner [Scott Bumgarner], 82, actor
Billie Holiday [Eleanora Fagan], 1915, singer
John Oates, 61. guitarist/vocalist
Wayne Rogers, 77, actor (“M*A*S*H”)
Ravi Shankar, 1920 ,Benares India, sitar player--Beatles
Business, Education Leaders
David Frost, 71, Tenterden, England entertainer, interviewer
W K Kellogg, 1860, cereals
Francis C Lowell, 1775, founded 1st raw cotton-to-cloth textile mill
Political Leaders
[Edmund G] Jerry Brown Jr, 1938, Governor-CA
(William) Hodding Carter III, 75, television and newspaper journalist
William Rufus DeVane King, 1786, 13th US Vice President
Scientists /Religious Leaders
Marjory Stoneman Douglas, 1890, environmentalist (1st Lady of Everglades)
St Francis Xavier, 1506, Jesuit missionary to India, Malaya, & Japan
•7 April Obits •
P. T. Barnum, 1891, American circus impresario @ 81
Kurt Cobain, 1994, grunge rocker (Nirvana), suicide @ 27
El Greco, 1614, Spanish painter (View of Toledo) @ 73
‡ ANSWERS to puzzle
1. Indiana: The Crossroads of America
2. Connecticut: Qui transtulit sustinet, He who transplanted sustains
3. New York: Excelsior, Ever upward
4. Oregon: Alis volat propriis, She flies with her own wings
5. Delaware: Liberty and Independence
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