TODAY’s HOLY MACKEREL: 1927 Harlem Globetrotters play their 1st game
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MY FREE RAMBLING THOUGHTS
I had a great lunch with my former colleague, John. He is busy working for the care giver company and taking care of his grandchild three days a week while his daughter is doing an internship In Fort Mohave. He and his wife have a time-share that they really like. On a recent visit they upgraded for more days, and better selection. The price was higher than they thought, but upon reviewing the documents, they had agreed to the higher price. So John has to work to make the payments. As John said, live and learn. It was a $20k lesson that carried a 17% interest rate if not paid off in 90 days. It is paid off at a 9% interest rate. He is looking forward to his daughter’s graduation, an end to his babysitting, and less work with the care givers group. When she graduates, she wants to work in Tuba so his wife will get a bigger BIA house and the three of them (grandma, mom, and toddler) will live there during the week until Maree retires. She doesn’t like living alone so it should work out fine. Like all people in their 60’s, we shared our medical issues. Neither of us has anything really serious, just complicated and tiresome. John and I are the same age. I got the senior salad for $9.50; John got the same food without the word ‘senior’ and paid $11.75. I pointed it out to him and he related a story from Coco’s. He and one of his elderly clients were having dinner. The client ordered off the senior menu and John decided to do the same. John was shocked that the waitress let him. He is 60; the menu is for those over 55. He thinks he should have at least been carded. I embraced the savings after I retired. John obviously doesn’t….yet.
I also learned today that my BCBS does NOT cover ID bracelets—even with a prescription. So I’m off on the internet to find one I will really wear. There seems to be a good .org place that costs $40 to join and $35 a year after the first year. You get the bracelet and EMT’s have world wide access to your medical history. They also notify your family if something happens. Sounds like a good deal. Of course you have to release your information, and I need to do some more checking to find out how secure it really is. Hopefully I won’t need to use it, but does give peace of mind.
I got a phone call from a company today. Turns out my mother had a small investment I knew nothing about. They emailed me the forms for my brother and I to sign, and then we get the money. The investment has doing well and is now worth about 9% more than it was at the time of her death. I sure wish some of my investments had done that well.
FEAR, I say FEAR…live in FEAR. Note: Sarcasm.The geniuses in Phx have proposed a bill that will allow students and employees to ‘open carry’ on all our college campuses. While campus violence is very scary, is this the answer? There are over 4000 campuses in the US—and that doesn’t include ‘satellite’ campuses. One campus, Virginia Tech, had a mass violence crazy in 2009. While that was tragic and unnecessary, the friends and family of the lost students want justice and prevention. I want prevention too. The idea of arming students and instructors is NOT the answer. I was on the adjunct faculty of two universities—NAU in Flagstaff and UofPhoenix. I taught many classes on the Rez. Many were full 18 week classes meeting one evening a week, others were weekend ‘wonder’ classes that did a marathon Friday night and all day Saturday and Sunday (8a-5p). I was teaching in the isolate heart of the rez. Many equally qualified would not ‘go onto the rez’. I can’t imagine ever, ever carrying a loaded gun to any of the places I taught. As a student, I took classes in Boulder and Flagstaff. I would have freaked if an instructor had walked into class carrying. The more guns there are, the chance that an innocent will be injured or killed increases. As a student, there were other students in the class who should never even see a gun, let alone carry one. I wonder how many legislators will want their child in a classroom where people are carrying. Sometimes instructors provide their students with controversial material to expand their minds. I sure don’t want students carrying in those classes. In my student teaching days I introduced to my 6th graders a program that had students read, without stopping, for up to 20 minutes. It was, back then, called uninterrupted silent sustained reading. My mentor and I were called into the Principal’s office with my university instructor. The principal had received a complaint that I was a communist and was teaching his daughter to be a communist. Being from a fairly liberal university the principal needed some clarification. After about 10 minutes in total disbelief, we all learned what the parent was talking about. Uninterrupted Silent Sustained Reading had an acronym—USSR. The intelligent educators were astounded, as was I. We worked it out; I continued to use the program by changing the name to TSSR—timed reading. Thank goodness the parent didn’t come to the school to shoot the commie. Times do change and not always for the better.
I still keep remembering that there were two people at the Tucson tragedy with loaded weapons. The crazed shooter and a citizen who believed in open carry and had a gun. He drew his gun and was ready to shoot but didn’t because ‘it didn’t feel right.’ He was about to shoot the man who had gotten the gun away from the crazy. I just don’t have enough faith in humanity to believe that every open carry individual would have this guy’s senses. I am not ready to find out.
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DID YOU KNOW THAT…
○ Take your bananas apart when you get home from the store. If you leave them connected at the stem, they ripen faster.
○ Peppers with 3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter and better for eating. Peppers with 4 bumps on the bottom are firmer and better for cooking.
SOMEWHAT USELESS INFORMATION…
○ 12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents daily.
○ A mistake made by doctors in 2006 cost a 47 year-old Los Angeles man his healthy right testicle. They where suppose to remove the left one!
¤… Who Wants to be a Millionaire PUZZLE
…answers at bottom…
1. When it gets dark out and you need to see, what do you turn on?
a dime your heel the charm a light
2. When we wish to verify that everything is all right, we say that it's what?
IL WA OK KO
3. One who isn't feeling well is said to be under the what?
Sun thumb weather gun
4. Taking food along to eat outdoors is called what?
an ant fest a cake walk a bee bash a picnic
5. When animals come into the country from foreign lands, they are usually held by customs for a specified time in what?
Quarternary quarantine quarterage quantum state
6. Henry Ford once said, 'Failure is the opportunity to __________.'
begin again, more intelligently throw in the towel
lie down and die bounce back for more
7. A period of warm weather following the first frost of autumn is called what?
Irish spring Dog days of summer French fall Indian summer
8. Who wrote 'The Mists Of Avalon'?
J.K. Rowling Marion Zimmer Bradley Jean M. Auel Johanna Spyri
9. What is the canopy used in a Jewish wedding called?
Chutzpah chuppah choson chrain
10. The four fundamental forces in physics are strong, electromagnetic, gravitational and what?
weak limp puny Herculean
11. Which explorer coined the phrase 'New World'?
Francisco Pizarro Ferdinand Magellan Hernan Cortes Amerigo Vespucci
12. The USS Cole was refueling on October 12, 2000 when it was blown up by a boat loaded with explosives off what country?
Yemen Qatar Oman Iraq
13. Pate is the French word for what?
Paste blend couch liver
14. What is fulgurite?
a flashing star a tube like formation in sand or rock caused by lightning
a full bodied wine from southern France an odorless gas used in lamps
15. Which president said, 'Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be'?
Harry Truman James Madison Calvin Coolidge Abraham Lincoln
UNUSUAL NEWS ITEM… ROME — The body of Mike Bongiorno, who was Italy's top quiz show host for more than 50 years and a close friend of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, was stolen from his grave, officials said Tuesday.
Bongiorno, who died in September 2009 at the age of 85, was buried in Arona, near Milan. A pensioner who regularly visits the cemetery alerted police that the grave had been violated and emptied. Italian media said no ransom had been demanded so far.
Bongiorno, a fixture in Italian television since its first broadcast in the 1950s, helped Berlusconi launch commercial television in the 1970s.
It is not the first time that the body of a famous personality has been snatched in Italy.
In 2001, in a cemetery near the one where Bongiorno was buried, the corpse of investment banker Enrico Cuccia was stolen and a ransom demanded. The thieves were identified and arrested.
A LITTLE LAUGH…
Because my mother had a habit of losing her cordless phone, I bought her a phone with a clip on it so she could attach it directly to her belt. A few days later, I walked into my mother's home and found her standing in the middle of the living room, halfway dressed. That didn't strike me as odd so much as the fact that she was holding her pants to the side of her head and speaking into them.
"Don't look at me that way," she yelled. "The phone started ringing and I couldn't figure out how to undo this stupid clip!"
¤…CLOSEUP PICTURE 
Can you identify this close up picture
FOUND ON ‘YOU TUBE’
♫ Rock Anthems ♫
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DAYBOOK INFORMATION
¤…THIS WEEK…¤
20-30
Sundance Film Festival
22-25
Kid Film Festival
23-29
National Handwriting Analysis Week ◘ National Nurse Anesthetists Week ◘ World Leprosy Week
24-Feb 4
Clean Out Your Inbox Week
24-28
National Cowboy Poetry Gathering Week ◘ National Medical Group Practice Week ◘ No Name Calling Week ◘ National Nuclear Science Week ◘ National Take Back Your Time Week
¤…TODAY IS…¤
Punch the Clock Day
Auschwitz Liberation Day
Holocaust Memorial Day
International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust
Mozart Day
Thomas Crapper Day
Viet Nam Peace Day (1973)
Mauritius: Cavadee: a Tamil legend—the road to faith is long and full of pitfalls
Today’s Births
○ AUTHORS
1832 Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson], author (Alice in Wonderland)
1885 Jerome Kern the father of the American musical: composer: Show Boat, Ol’ Man River, Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, Lovely to Look At, The Way You Look Tonight, The Last Time I Saw Paris
1756 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Austria, musical prodigy/composer (Figaro)
○ ATHLETES
1901 Art Rooney NFL team owner (Pittsburgh Steelers)
Keith Olbermann, 52, TV sportscaster, MSNBC guru
(Anthony) Cris Collinsworth, 52, sportscaster, football (Bengals)
○ BUSINESS & EDUCATION
1850 Samuel Gompers Dutch/US, 1st president-American Federation of Labor
1908 William Randolph Hearst Jr newspaper publisher (Hearst Publishing)
○ ENTERTAINERS (ACTORS/SINGERS/…)
Mikhail Baryshnikov, 63, ballet dancer, actor
1936 Troy Donahue actor (Surfside Six, Cockfighter, Hawaiian Eye)
1918 Skitch Henderson English orchestra leader (Tonight Show)
1921 Donna Reed (Mullenger) actress: From Here to Eternity, It’s a Wonderful Life, The Benny Goodman Story, The Donna Reed Show
1919 David Seville [Ross Bagdasarian], entertainer (Alvin & Chipmunks)
1924 Sabu [Dastagir], India, actor (Elephant Boy, Drum)
○ POLITICIANS
Mairead Corrigan (Máiread Corrigan-Maguire and Mairead Maguire), 67, pacifist, Nobel Peace Prize winner, born Belfast, Northern Ireland
John G. Roberts, Jr, 56, Chief Justice of the US
○ SCIENCE & RELIGION
1900 Hyman Rickover ‘Father of the Nuclear Navy’: U.S. Navy Admiral: directed development of the Nautilus, the first nuclear reactor-powered submarine
¤…Today’s Obituaries…¤
1994 Claude Akins actor (Rio Bravo, Lobo), cancer @ 75
1967 Roger B Chaffee astronaut, @ 31 in Apollo I fire
1967 Virgil I (Gus) Grissom astronaut, @ 41 in Apollo I fire
1972 Mahalia Jackson gospel singer (He Got the Whole World), diabetes/heart failure @ 60
1967 Edward Higgins White II Lieutenant-Colonel USAF/astronaut (Gemini 4), @ 36 in Apollo I fire
¤…Today’s Events…¤
○ ARTS
1918 "Tarzan of the Apes", 1st Tarzan film, premieres at Broadway Theater
1961 "Sing Along with Mitch" [Miller] premieres on NBC TV
1976 "Laverne & Shirley" spin-off from "Happy Days" premieres on ABC TV
1977 1st broadcast of "Roots" mini-series on ABC TV
○ ATHLETICS
1984 Carl Lewis bettered his own two-year-old record by 9-1/4 inches when he set a new, world indoor record with a long-jump mark of 28 feet, 10-1/4 inches.
1989 Kevin Johnson (Phoenix) begins NBA free throw streak of 57 games
○ BUSINESS & EDUCATION
1662 1st American lime kiln begins operation (Providence RI)
1785 1st US state university chartered, Athens GA
1870 1st sorority (Kappa Alpha Theta) (DePauw University in Greencastle IN)
1948 1st tape recorder sold
1970 Movie rating system modifies "M" rating to "PG"
○ INDIGENOUS PEOPLE
1863 General Patrick Connor, and almost 300 California volunteers will fight Bear Hunter's Northern Shochone on Bear River, north of the Idaho-Utah boundary. The soldiers will report 224 of the warriors will be killed in the fighting, including Bear Hunter. Other sources will put the number nearer to 400, including many women and children. Connor is called "Star Chief" by the Indians. This will be called the "Battle of Bear River" by the Army.
○ POLITICS (US)
1915 US Marines occupy Haiti
○ POLITICS (International)
1556 Willem of Orange becomes knight of Guilder Flies
1710 Czar Peter the Great sets 1st Russian state budget
1924 Lenin placed in Mausoleum in Red Square
1969 14 spies hung in Baghdad
○ SCIENCE & RELIGION
1880 Thomas Edison patents electric incandescent lamp
1888 National Geographic Society organizes (Washington DC)
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ANSWERS
¤…Millionaire ANSWERS…¤
1. When it gets dark out and you need to see, what do you turn on? a light
2. When we wish to verify that everything is all right, we say that it's what? OK
3. One who isn't feeling well is said to be under the what? weather
4. Taking food along to eat outdoors is called what? a picnic
5. When animals come into the country from foreign lands, they are usually held by customs for a specified time in what? quarantine
6. Henry Ford once said, 'Failure is the opportunity to __________.' begin again, more intelligently
7. A period of warm weather following the first frost of autumn is called what? Indian summer
8. Who wrote 'The Mists Of Avalon'? Marion Zimmer Bradley
9. What is the canopy used in a Jewish wedding called? chuppah
10. The four fundamental forces in physics are strong, electromagnetic, gravitational and what? weak
11. Which explorer coined the phrase 'New World'? Amerigo Vespucci
12. The USS Cole was refueling on October 12, 2000 when it was blown up by a boat loaded with explosives off what country? Yemen
13. Pate is the French word for what? paste
14. What is fulgurite? a tube like formation in sand or rock caused by lightning
15. Which president said, 'Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be'? Abraham Lincoln
¤…Close up Picture…¤
Crosswalk Button
« AND THAT’S ALL FOR NOW »
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