TODAY’s HOLY MACKEREL: 1947 KTLA, Channel 5, in Hollywood, began operation as the first commercial television station west of the Mississippi River
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MY FREE RAMBLING THOUGHTS
I felt really good today. I spent some time rearranging this blog, adding and removing some things. First, the leopard picture is from a FB friend/guide in South Africa. We were never that close during the day, but did have a view that close at night. Next I added a new puzzle and stopped Jeopardy for a while. The new puzzle is from Who Want To Be Millionaire? There are 15 questions—each a little harder than the previous one. It does give the player choices. I’m trying to figure out how to keep it from taking up quite so much space. I have been having fun in adding the pics for the birthdays and simply changed the border, so it would stand out more. I certainly had fun searching out the changes. I also got rid of the commercials and have gone back to music. Rock Anthems are always loud, and are heard at athletic events to pump up the athletes. They also pump up an audience at a concert. I listen to quite a few of these on my ipod while I am walking. I’d probably lose some weight if I moved to the beat, but the beat keeps me moving at a fairly fast pace. It has been a long day getting all this stuff done, but what the heck, I’m retired, I didn’t have any major things to do today, and I enjoyed almost every part of the experience. I did have to do some re-learn, re-call to do all the stuff. Keeps the brain cells working.
I am so lucky, even with my recent medical issues. The townhouse next to me has become a half-way house for recovering something or other. That means a couple of things. First it means that they tenants don’t stay very long—usually about 30-60 days. It must be a court ordered thing. They move into the place which is unfurnished with little or no furniture. They are friendly but not intrusive. No loud noises as a detention officer shows up every couple of nights about 10pm to check on the tenant. When there are two tenants then two officers show up—sometimes together; sometimes separately. It is a half way house for women—so far. These women have all seen much better days. While they appear to be in the late 20’s to late 30’s they look much much older. None of them have a vehicle, so there is more parking for the rest of us. They do have visitors who haul them around or they take the bus that is just off the property. Every time I see one of them through my office window I am thankful that I don’t know anyone who has gone through what they have. I wish them all well in their recovery. They all seem to have a rough road ahead. The first tenant had a boy friend who would show up at the house drunk. There would be a little yelling. So many times the person recovering falls back into the same old destructive behavior because their only ‘friends’ have the same problems.
Gabby moved to Houston today to begin rehab of a different kind. The roads from the Tucson Hospital to the air base were lined with well wishers. Her husband and the ambulance attendants said that she had tears in her eyes when she saw and heard them. The doctors have put some kind of hard skull cap over her open brain. Her husband said that it should have an AZ flag on it, as he knew Gabby would like that. Within a few hours a new one arrived with our state flag emblazoned on it. This is such a story. The medical staff at Tucson were visibly moved by her departure…joyful that she is recovering so quickly and saddened that they will not be able to see her every day. She was at the hospital for only 13 days, but made a real impression. The Houston staff that was interviewed today seem just as encouraging I sure hope that everyone realizes that her new rehab specialist is also Asian and appears from his speech patterns to be an immigrant. It is so good for the bigots of AZ to see that in the medical field that the patients, the staff, and the professionals all appear to be color blind, orientation blind, and are just doing their jobs from day to day. There is a big lesson there.
The internet is amazing. As I was watching Keith Olbermann’s Countdown, he announced at the end of the broadcast that he and MSNBC had ended their contract. Certainly his show leaned to the left. But every Friday he shared James Thurber with his audience. He didn’t say anything about future plans. I like Rachel Maddow a little more than Keith, but Keith gave us some good things to think about. I will miss his commentary. He certainly had fans and certainly had haters, but he did a good job of making his points.
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DID YOU KNOW THAT…
○ If a wooden door is sticking in its frame, fix it with a bar of soap. Rub it along the edges of the door to give it a thin coating. Move the door back and forth to distribute the soap evenly, and it will operate with ease.
○Standard washing machines use 40 gallons of water per load. If your clothes don’t stink, don’t wash them and save a load a week. If American households were more judicious about laundry, each year they would save enough water to fill more than 7 million swimming pools. When you do wash, put full loads (saving 3,400 gallons of water a year) in cold water.
○The main reason about 30 million Americans snore is because of sagging muscles in the back of the mouth that vibrate loudly during sleep. The good news: eating a banana before bed may cure the problem! Turns out, the fruit's hospholipids help prevent the collapse of your airway during sleep -- and the effect lasts six hours.
SOMEWHAT USELESS INFORMATION… Libraries
○ Small private libraries existed in America from early colonial times. Ministers and doctors, for instance, usually had small private collections, as did churches and colleges, ranging from a few dozen volumes to a few hundred. In the 1700s, many of these church collections were available to their parishioners, but there was usually no system for preserving or maintaining them, and they just wasted away over the years.
○Colleges and universities had private libraries as early as 1638, when the Reverend John Harvard bequeathed a recently founded college around 280 books and an endowment. At the time, books symbolized wealth: scholars and colleges often measured their affluence based on the size of their book collections.
○The first trend that led to our public library system was the so-called "social library," invented by Benjamin Franklin. In 1731, he initiated a "subscription library" as a way of sharing books among members of a literary society, and in 1742 it was incorporated as the Library Company of Philadelphia, the first established in the U.S. You could join the library by buying stock in the company, and books were only available to members.
¤… Who Wants to be a Millionaire PUZZLE
…answers at bottom…
1. In the United States, how much is a dime worth?
25 cents $1,000,000 5 cents 10 cents
2. In which country was George Washington the first president?
Philippines United States of America Canada What? Who's George Washington?
3. How many inches are in a foot?
13 10 6 12
4. Michael Jordan professionally played which of these sports?
Basketball Water polo Cricket Luge
5. What was the maiden name of Bill Clinton's wife?
Barbara Pierce Frances Folsom Hillary Rodham Monica Lewinsky
6. Dr. Seuss wrote all of these books except for which?
'Tootle' 'The Cat in the Hat' 'Oh, the Places You'll Go!' 'Green Eggs and Ham'
7. In the 'Garfield' comic strip, what is the name of Garfield's rubber chicken?
Herbie Pooky Stretch Ed
8. The act of having several wives at one time is called what?
Endogamy Apogamy Polygamy Monogamy
9. What was the first U.S. state to enter the Union?
New Jersey Georgia Pennsylvania Delaware
10. What is the name of the angel in 'It's a Wonderful Life'?
Hilda Bernard Yvonne Clarence
11. If you were born on July 1st, what would your astrological sign be?
Cancer Gemini Taurus Leo
12. In the song 'Blue' by Eiffel 65, what nonsensical phrase does the singer repeatedly sing?
Li di da li da di Da ba dye da ba dee Da ba dee da ba dye Li da di li di da
13. Whom did Bobby Fischer defeat in 1972 to become Chess World Champion?
Mikhail Botvinnik Boris Spassky Mikhail Tal Tigran Petrosian
14. Which planet once had a 'Great Dark Spot' before it disappeared in 1995?
Jupiter Neptune Saturn Mars
15. The mathematical term 'e' stands for what number, to two decimal places?
2.17 2.71 1.73 1.37
UNUSUAL NEWS ITEM… KIEV, Ukraine
— The crocodile in "Peter Pan" happily went "tick-tock" after swallowing an alarm clock but a crocodile in Ukraine has been a little less fortunate.
Gena, a 14-year-old crocodile at an aquarium in the eastern city of Dnipropetrovsk, has been refusing food and acting listless after eating a cell phone dropped by a woman as she tried to photograph him.
Aquarium workers initially didn't believe Rimma Golovko, a new mother in her 20s, when she complained that the crocodile had swallowed her phone.
"But then the phone started ringing and the sound was coming from inside our Gena's stomach and we understood she wasn't lying," said Alexandra, an employee who declined to give her last name as she wasn't authorized to speak publicly.
Golovko admits the accident was her fault. She stretched out her arm to snap a photo of Gena mouth opening and dropped her Nokia phone into the water.
"This should have been a very dramatic shot, but things didn't work out," she said.
Golovko is resigned to losing her phone, but still wants its SIM card back since that has her precious photos and contacts.
The mishap has caused bigger problems for the crocodile, which has not eaten or had a bowel movement in four weeks and appears depressed and in pain.
"The animal is not feeling well," said Alexandra. "His behavior has changed, he moves very little and swims much less than he used to."
Doctors tried to whet the crocodile's appetite this week by feeding him live quail rather than the pork or beef he usually gets once a week. The quail were injected with vitamins and a laxative, but while Gena smothered one bird, he didn't eat it.
He also won't play with three fellow African crocodiles, despite being the leader in the group. Crocodiles can live up to 100 years.
"He is the biggest and the oldest, perhaps he went for the phone to protect his group," Alexandra said.
Dnipropetrovsk chief veterinarian Oleksandr Shushlenko said the crocodile will be taken for an X-ray next week if he continues to refuse food. Surgically removing the phone would be a measure of last resort, he said, since incisions and stitches usually take at least three weeks to heal in reptiles and the procedure is dangerous for the animal and the vets.
"Everything will depend on where the foreign body is located," Shushlenko said. "We don't have much experience working with such large animals."
The crocodile in "Peter Pan" with the ticking stomach was on the hunt for Captain Hook after getting a taste for the pirate's flesh from eating one of his hands. But luckily for Hook, he could always hear the crocodile coming.
A LITTLE LAUGH…
While I was working in the men's section of a department store, a woman asked me to help her choose a white dress shirt for her husband.
When I asked about his size, the woman looked stumped at first, then her face brightened. She held up her hands, forming a circle with her forefingers and thumbs.
"I don't know his size," she said, "but my hands fit perfectly around his neck."
¤…CLOSEUP PICTURE
Can you identify this close up picture
FOUND ON ‘YOU TUBE’
♫ Rock Anthems ♫
Click on Song Title to see and hear
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DAYBOOK INFORMATION
¤…THIS WEEK…¤
16-22
International Printing Week ◘ Healthy Weight Week ◘ Hunt For Happiness Week ◘ National Activity Professionals Week
17-23
National Fresh Squeezed Juice Week
18-25
Week of Christian Unity
20-30
Sundance Film Festival
22-25
Kid Film Festival
¤…TODAY IS…¤
AFRMA: American Fancy Rat & Mouse Day
National Answer Your Cat's Question Day
National Blonde Brownie Day
Celebration of Life Day
Roe vs. Wade Day (1973)
Ukraine: Ukrainian Day (1918 ) also called Reunion Day
Today’s Births
○ AUTHORS
1561 Francis Bacon English statesman/essayist (Novum Organum)
1788 Lord [George Gordon Noel] Byron English romantic poet (Don Juan)
Joseph Wambaugh, 74, former police officer, author (The Onion Field, The Choir Boys)
○ ATHLETES
Greg Oden, 23, basketball (Trailblazers)
○ BUSINESS & EDUCATION
1802 Richard Upjohn US, gothic architect (Trinity Chapel, New York)
1875 D[avid] W Griffith movie producer/director (Birth of a Nation)
1934 Graham Kerr chef (Galloping Gourmet)
○ ENTERTAINERS (ACTORS/SINGERS/…)
1934 Bill Bixby actor (Incredible Hulk, My Favorite Martian)
Linda Blair, 52, actress (The Exorcist, Airport)
1931 Sam Cooke gospel & blues singer (You Send Me, Another Saturday Night, Twisting The Night Away)
Piper Laurie (Rosetta Jacobs), 79, actress (Fighting for My Daughter, “Twin Peaks”)
Steve Perry, 62, singer (Journey)
○ POLITICIANS
1440 Ivan III the Great, Russian czar (1462-1505)/conquered Lithuania
1909 U Thant statesman from Burma: United Nations Secretary-General [1961-1971]
○ SCIENCE & RELIGION
1915 Heinrich Albertz German theologian and politician
1913 William Conway Northern Irish cardinal
1932 Berthold Grünfeld Norwegian psychiatrist and former sexologist
¤…Today’s Obituaries…¤
1922 Benedictus XV [Giacomo Markies D Chiesa], pope (1914-22), pneumonia @ 67
1969 Judy Garland singer/actress (Wizard of Oz), overdose @ 48
1973 Lyndon B Johnson President (1963-69), heart attack @ 64
1995 Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy mother of President John F Kennedy, @ 104
1979 Ali Hassan Salameh [Abu Hassan], killed by car bomb; believed to have helped mastermind massacre of 1972 Munich Olympics athletes @m 39
1994 Telly Savalas actor (Kojak), prostate cancer @ 70
1995 Mahmoud Sayed Selim Egyptian Muslim leader, shot @ 29
1901 Victoria [Alexandrine], Britain's Queen (1837-1901), @ 81 (63 year reign)
¤…Today’s Events…¤
○ ARTS
1816 Lord Byron completes "Parisina" & "The Siege of Corinth"
1968 "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In" premieres on NBC
○ ATHLETICS
1961 1960’s Olympic gold medalist and track star Wilma Rudolph set a world indoor mark in the women’s 60-yard dash.
1988 Mike Tyson TKOs Larry Holmes in 4 for heavyweight boxing title
○ BUSINESS & EDUCATION
1673 Postal service between New York & Boston inaugurated
1964 World's largest cheese (15,723 kg: 34,663.28 lbs) manufactured, Wisconsin
○ INDIGENOUS PEOPLE
1599 The Spanish attack the Acoma Pueblo
1690 Iroquois tribes renew allegiance to British against French
○ POLITICS (US)
1879 James Shields, who had previously served Illinois and Minnesota, began a term as a U.S. Senator from Missouri. He was the first Senator to serve three different states
1946 US President sets up CIA, Central Intelligence Agency
1998 “The Unabomber’s career is over,” said prosecutor Robert Cleary. Theodore Kaczynski had pleaded guilty
○ POLITICS (International)
1517 Turks conquer Cairo
1771 Spain cedes the Falkland Islands to Britain
○ SCIENCE & RELIGION
1814 1st Knights Templar grand encampment in US held, New York City NY
1881 Ancient Egyptian obelisk "Cleopatra's Needle" erected in Central Park
1982 75% of North America is covered by snow
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ANSWERS
¤…Millionaire ANSWERS…¤
1. In the United States, how much is a dime worth? 10 cents
2. In which country was George Washington the first president? United States of America
3. How many inches are in a foot? 12
4. Michael Jordan professionally played which of these sports? Basketball
5. What was the maiden name of Bill Clinton's wife? Hillary Rodham
6. Dr. Seuss wrote all of these books except for which? Tootie
7. In the 'Garfield' comic strip, what is the name of Garfield's rubber chicken? Pooky
8. The act of having several wives at one time is called what? Polygamy
9. What was the first U.S. state to enter the Union? Deleware
10. What is the name of the angel in 'It's a Wonderful Life'? Clarence
11. If you were born on July 1st, what would your astrological sign be? Cancer
12. In the song 'Blue' by Eiffel 65, what nonsensical phrase does the singer repeatedly sing? Dab a deed a ba dye
13. Whom did Bobby Fischer defeat in 1972 to become Chess World Champion? Boris Spassky
14. Which planet once had a 'Great Dark Spot' before it disappeared in 1995? Neptune
15. The mathematical term 'e' stands for what number, to two decimal places? 2.71
¤…Close up Picture…¤
Yogurt
« AND THAT’S ALL FOR NOW »
