5-13-11

TODAY’s “Geez”: 1958 - Rioters attack US VP Nixon in Venezuela

Free Rambling Thoughts…

We met for our weekly lunch today. Greek. Good. Cheryl is getting ready for her Santa Fe Grant Writer workshop. Very cool. She is going to figure out if she wants a website. She has the name, I think, from a few years back. She never paid more than the first year fee for the actual website. Technology has really changed since back then. I think what she really needs are some You Tube presentations that potential customers can go to. Grant Writing is really not a profession that needs lots of on-line presence, but does need somewhere for potential clients to go to learn what she does. She’s going to check around with the other participants. She is excited about the whole idea. The hardest job will be to find paying clients. Mary had a great time on her balloon ride at Sedona. The ride was advertised as a 4 hour experience…and that it was. Many would read that as a 4 hour balloon ride, which it wasn’t. The four hours included the prep, the one hour ride, and the champagne breakfast at the end. She did have some great pics including a large elk herd. Very nice.

So about a week ago John Ensign resigned from the Senate. He’s the guy who last year was involved in having an affair with one of his staffers. Turns out that both the husband and wife worked for the then Senator, and she believed that she had to do it to keep the affair going in order to live the lifestyle they lived. The then Senator was paying for their children’s private school tuition, lending them money for house payments, paying them big salaries, and paying for the family vacations. Today we found out that Mr. Ensign’s parents lied about the money they ‘gave’ to the couple, that the Senator and the husband had a foot chase in an airport parking lot when the husband found out that the affair was continuing even after both had said it ended. Watch for criminal charges against Ensign and his parents for lying to a Senate committee. How embarrassing for everyone involved.

Trivia Quiz…(answers at the end of post)

Who was elected senator for New York in 1964?

For how long were Prince Charles and Princess Diana divorced before she died?

Which Olympic athlete was born on the same day as Princess Diana?

What relation was China's Jiang Zemin to LI Xiannian?

Who did the first black heavyweight champion boxer lose his world heavyweight title to?

Who did Gary Kasparov take the world title from in 1985?

Who set up the Securities and exchange Commission for President Franklin D Roosevelt?

Who did Colonel Gaddafi succeed in 1969?

Who became leader of the Khmer Rouge in 1985?

Who succeeded Khrushchev as Soviet premier?

In which movie did Alan Ladd have his first lead role?

Har Gobind Khorana won the 1968 Nobel Prize for Medicine for research into what?

How was William Henry Pratt better known?

Zoom-ed in Picture…Can you Identify what this is? (Answer at end of post)

Hmmmmm…

>Percentage change since 2008 in the number of confirmed gonorrhea cases in Alaska: +71

>Chance that a mammal species declared extinct 1500 was later re-discovered: 1 in 3

The First Time…

Herbert Hoover 1874 --- 1st US President born west of the Mississippi.

Louis De Geer  1874 --- 1st US Prime Minister of Sweden

Matthew Webb  1875 --- 1st known person to swim across the English Channel. (He drowned in 1883 after unsuccessfully trying to swim across the whirlpools and rapids beneath Niagara Falls.)

Mary Baker Eddy  1879 --- 1st and only American woman to found a lasting American-based religion- The Church of Christ (Scientist)

Somewhat Useless Information…

***The word CIRCUS comes from the Latin meaning ring or circle. It referred to the circuit made by horses and chariots as they raced.

*** The beginning of our modern circus was staged in London in 1770. It was called "Astley's British Riding School" andwas an exhibit of spectacular horsemanship.

*** The first circus menagerie was started by Hackaliah Bailey in 1815 when he purchased Old Bet, an Indian Elephant. He later contracted with various ship captains to bring in assorted monkeys, bears, zebras, etc. He exhibited the animals in barns throughout New England.

*** P.T. Barnum started his show business career by claiming to have on display a 150 year slave woman who was George Washington's nurse. He followed this up with the celebrated smallest man in the world, general Tom Thumb, and a number of other big names including internationally-famous singer Jenny Lind, the Swedish Nightingale.

*** The largest elephant ever taken into captivity was a bull African Elephant (Loxodonta Africana) measuring 13 feet, 2 inches at the shoulder and weighing 12 tons. Though taken in the Guando River region of Angola, the remains of the now-stuffed animal are on display at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

*** The most famous tightrope walker of all time was the Frenchman Jean Francoise Gravelet, also known as Charles Blondi (1824-1897). He is credited with making the earliest crossing of Niagara Falls on July 30, 1855. He covered the distance of 1,100 feet on a 3 inch rope, 160 feet above the Falls.

Yeah, It Really Happened…

HILLSBORO, Ore. — A man practicing a quick draw at a life-size poster of Don Michael Corleone accidentally fired a shot that hit the "Godfather" movie mob boss in the shoulder, and the slug went through the wall of his apartment, striking his neighbor's flat-screen television, police say.

Travis Hood, 27, was taken to the Washington County Jail and accused of recklessly endangering, said Washington County Sheriff's Office spokesman Sgt. David Thompson.

He has also been charged with first-degree criminal mischief and unlawful use of a weapon, according to the sheriff's office website.

The shooting took place at 8150 SW Barnes Road, Unit C202 about 2:50 p.m. Wednesday. Hood reportedly used a .357 Magnum.

There were no injuries. Except to the 40-inch high-def TV.

Guffaw…or at least smile…

A man went into the pet shop, "I am playing Long John Silver in the local amateur dramatic society’s version of Treasure Island and need a parrot to sit on my shoulder," he said.

"I don't have any parrots at the moment, but you wouldn't want a real parrot for that. It would squawk in all the wrong places, poop on your shoulder and generally be a nuisance. What you need is a stuffed parrot. Just as realistic and easily controlled."

"I'm not sure a stuffed parrot would be okay," said the customer. "I do want this performance to be as realistic as possible."

"I am sure a stuffed parrot would be fine," said the pet shop owner. "I have one at home. I'll bring it in and if you come back on Thursday you can have it."

"Sorry," said the customer, "I can't make it on Thursday. That's the day I'm having my leg cut off."

Searchin’ “You Tube” I found…

The Secret life of Daphne Du Maurier http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqqLCXkVLS8

Daybook Information

…Happening This Week:

6-12 National Nurses Day and Week

7-15National Tourism Week:

8-14

 National Hospital Week * National Nursing Home Week * Reading is Fun Week * Salute to Moms 35+ Week

9-15

National Return To Work Week * National Women's Health Week * National Etiquette Week * National Stuttering Awareness Week * Universal Family Week

«TODAY IS

Blame Someone Else Day
Friday the 13th
Frog Jumping Day: traced back to Missouri author Mark Twain, and his first short story, “Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog.” If you’d like to read this story today, it’s also known as “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” as well as “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.”

Leprechaun Day dedicated to the elves of Ireland

Today’s Events:

…  IN ARTS

--

…  IN ATHLETICS

1911 - NY Giant Fred Merkle is 1st to get 6 RBIs in an inning 

1955 - Mickey Mantle hits 3 consecutive HRs of at least 463'

…  IN BUSINESS & EDUCATION

1918 - 1st US airmail stamps issued (24 cents)

1934 - Great dustbowl storm

1950 - Diner's Club issues its 1st credit cards

1958 - The trade mark Velcro is registered

1966 - Federal education funding is denied to 12 school districts in the South because of violations of the 1964 Civil Rights Act

…  FOR INDIGENOUS PEOPLE

1916 - 1st observance of Indian (Native American) Day

…  IN INTERNATIONAL POLITICS

1787 - Arthur Phillip sets sails with 11 ships of criminals to Botany Bay

1830 - Republic of Ecuador is founded, with Juan Jose Flores as president

1846 - US declares war on Mexico, 2 months after fighting begins

1969 - Race riots, later known as the May 13 Incident, take place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

1979 - Shah & family sentenced to death in Teheran

…  IN SCIENCE & RELIGION

1637 - Cardinal Richelieu of France creates the table knife

1917 - 1st appearance of Mary to 3 shepherd children in Fatima, Portugal

1975 - Hail stones as large as tennis balls hit Wernerville TN

1981 - Pope John Paul II shot, wounded by assailant in St Peter's Square

…  IN US POLITICS

1607 - English colonists (John Smith) lands near James River in VA

1947 - Senate approved the Taft-Hartley Act limiting the power of unions

1985 - Philadelphia police dropped an explosive onto the headquarters of the radical group MOVE; 11 people died in the resulting fire.

2003 - The government unveiled a new version of the $20 bill - the first to be colorized in an effort to thwart counterfeiters.

… ARTISTS:  AUTHORS:  COMPOSERS…

1907 - Daphne du Maurier, English writer (Rebecca, Parasites)

1856 - Peter Henry Emerson, 1st to promote photography as an independent art

1842 - Arthur Seymour Sullivan, London England, composer (Gilbert & Sullivan)

…ATHLETES

1914 - Joe Louis, world heavyweight boxing champion (1937-49)

1928 - Jim Shoulders, Champion rodeo cowboy 

Barry Zito, Baseball player, turns 33

…ENTERTAINERS (ACTORS/SINGERS…)

Stephen Colbert, TV host ("The Colbert Report"), turns 47

Harvey Keitel, Actor turns 72 

Robert Pattinson ("Twilight" movies) turns 25 

Stevie Wonder, Singer, musician, turns 61

… ENTREPRENEUR & EDUCATORS

1729 - Henry William Stiegel German-born American ironmaster and glassmaker

…POLITICIANS
--

…SCIENTISTS / THEOLOGISTS

1822 - Francis of Assisi of Bourbon, King Consort of Spain 

1883 - Georgios Papanikolaou, Greek doctor, inventor of the Pap smear 

1931 - Jim Jones, American cult leader

Today’s Obits:

1916 - Sholem Aleichem, yiddish writer (Fiddler on the Roof), dies at 57

1972 - Dan Blocker, American actor (Hoss-Bonanza), dies of pulmonary embolism at 43

1961 - Gary Cooper, 2 time Acad award winning actor (High Noon), dies of cancer at 60

1985 - Selma Diamond, comedienne (Selma-Night Court), dies of cancer at 64

1967 - Frank McGrath, actor (Wagon Train), dies of heart attack at 64

1835 - John Nash, British town planner/architect (Regent's Park), dies at 83

1975 - Bob Wills, American musician dies of pneumonia at 70

ANSWERS:

Trivia Quiz

Who was elected senator for New York in 1964?

Bobby Kennedy

For how long were Prince Charles and Princess Diana divorced before she died?

One Year

Which Olympic athlete was born on the same day as Princess Diana?

Carl Lewis

What relation was China's Jiang Zemin to LI Xiannian?

Son in Law

Who did the first black heavyweight champion boxer lose his world heavyweight title to?

Jess Willard beat Jack Johnson

Who did Gary Kasparov take the world title from in 1985?

Anatoly Karpov

Who set up the Securities and exchange Commission for President Franklin D Roosevelt?

Joseph Kennedy

Who did Colonel Gaddafi succeed in 1969?

King Idris

Who became leader of the Khmer Rouge in 1985?

Khieu Samphan

Who succeeded Khrushchev as Soviet premier?

Kosygin

In which movie did Alan Ladd have his first lead role?

This Gun For HIre

Har Gobind Khorana won the 1968 Nobel Prize for Medicine for research into what?

Genetics

How was William Henry Pratt better known?

Boris Karloff

Close Up Picture

…AND THAT’S ALL FOR NOW