Ø TODAY’s “Geez”:
930 - World's oldest parliament, the Iceland Parliament, established
Ø Free Rambling Thoughts…
I am sure glad the days are getting shorter, at least for today. It was very warm today.
A few years ago the sweat lodge in Sedona with 3 people dying, the National News was had lots of coverage. The jury came back today after less than two days of deliberation in the 4 month trial. Guilty of 3 counts of manslaughter. Not even a mention on the evening news. Probably because Pres. Obama’s speech on Afghanistan was basically all that was talked about. I’m sure this is far from being over, but Ray was not found guilty of 2nd degree murder which was the other choice. This does open the way for civil suits by the families. A story with lots more to come.
Obama gave a speech on Afghanistan. When he took office, there were 35,000 troops. He raised that number to 100,000. His plan gets us to down to 66,000 by 2014. Kids who were born when we entered Afghanistan are ready to enter 6th grade. Some of those kids have only seen their soldier parents a couple of weeks at a time every year as they are redeployed and redeployed, and redeployed. As we all know, this includes moms as well as dads. I am one of those wishing that the ‘drawdown’ would go a whole lot faster, along with 69% of Americans. We got bin Laden, we have learned that the people with the biggest guns are friends of the Afghanistan people. We still have 45,000 troops in Iraq. And nobody knows how many troops are involved in Libya. I admit, finding jobs for 150,000+ soldiers returning home would not be easy, but we wouldn’t be spending a billion a week if they came home.
I was surprised when I turned on FB tonight and found that our two term mayor will not be seeking re-election in 2012. She said she will continue to serve the people when called. Sounds like a lady with bigger plans than our little ol’ town has to offer. She has been a social network Mayor who has done some good things for our town. I disagree with some of her decisions regarding the Peaks, but overall I believe she has done a good job.
Change is always hard, and I seem to be in the middle of change. For two years our discussion group always met on Friday night. This year we are jumping between Friday and Saturday. I was OK with the change, but have to pay attention now. Our lunch group is busy this summer and is having a hard time finding Thursdays open. So this week we met today, next week it’s Friday. I always work to have my medical appointments as early as possible in the day, but my next appointment had to be at 2:30 in the afternoon. I’m trying really hard to deal with all these changes, but I wish things would get back to my ‘normal’. Tough life.
Ø Trivia Quiz…(answers at the end of post)
1. In the X Files what is Mulder's first name?
2. Which of the Beatles was the first to be widowed?
3. Which Menacing US sitcom was screened as Just Dennis in the UK?
4. In which country were the 1996 Olympic Games held?
5. In Mask Jim Carrey starred as someone working where?
6. Who had a 70s No 1 with If You Leave Me Now?
7. What is the postal abbreviation for Indiana?
8. Which Jeff starred in The Fabulous Baker Boys?
9. IN 1998 actor James Brolin married which singer / actress?
10. Bill Clinton was Governor of which state when he became President?
11. Wichita international airport is in which US state?
12. The Dalai Lama fled which country in the 50s?
Ø Zoom-ed in Picture…Can you Identify what this is? (Answer at end of post)
Ø Hmmmmm…
· Percentage of US railway freight cars that are currently in storage: 23
Ø Somewhat Useless Information…
· After his death, Alexander the Great's remains were preserved in a huge crock of honey. Among the ancient Egyptians, it was common practice to bury the dead in this manner.
· Undertakers have reported that human bodies do not deteriorate as quickly as in previous times. They believe this is because the modern diet contains so many preservatives that these chemicals tend to prevent the body from decomposing too rapidly after death.
· When a person dies, hearing is generally the last sense to go. The first sense is usually sight. Then follow taste, smell, and touch.
· In ancient Egypt, when merchants left the country on business trips they carried small stone models of themselves. If they died while abroad, these figures were sent back to Egypt for proxy burial.
· When a crusader died, his corpse was chopped up and the flesh boiled away. This was done so that the skeleton could be conveniently returned for a Christian burial.
· Obsidian balls, or occasionally brass balls, were placed in the eye sockets of Egyptian mummies. The bandaging of a mummy often took from six to eight months and required a collection of special tools.
Ø Yeah, It Really Happened…
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - Police in Florida said a robber paid $1 for a pack of gum when store clerks explained they couldn't open the register without a purchase. Fort Lauderdale police said the unidentified robber pointed a gun at an employee of the 1939 NW Ninth Ave. Family Dollar store June 1 and ordered a second clerk to open the register, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reported Monday.
However, the clerks explained they could not open the register unless a purchase was made, and the robber took $1 from his pocket and paid for a pack of gum, police said. Police said the man fled with the money from the register, including his $1. The incident was recorded by security cameras. Investigators said the same man entered the neighboring Caribbean Mizik at 11:50 a.m. the following day and took money from the register.
Ø Guffaw…or at least smile…
QUESTION: Why did the chicken cross the road?
Answers:
Pat Buchanan: To steal a job from a decent, hard-working American.
Machiavelli: The point is that the chicken crossed the road. Who cares why? The ends of crossing the road justify whatever motive there was.
Thomas de Torquemada: Give me ten minutes with the chicken and I'll find out.
Timothy Leary: Because that's the only kind of trip the Establishment would let it take.
The Bible: And God came down from the heavens, and He said unto the chicken, "Thou shalt cross the road." And the Chicken crossed the road, and there was much rejoicing.
Fox Mulder: It was a government conspiracy.
Freud: The fact that you thought that the chicken crossed the road reveals your underlying sexual insecurity.
Darwin: Chickens, over great periods of time, have been naturally selected in such a way that they are now genetically predisposed to cross roads
Richard M. Nixon: The chicken did not cross the road. I repeat, the chicken did not cross the road.
Oliver Stone: The question is not "Why did the chicken cross the road?" but is rather "Who was crossing the road at the same time whom we overlooked in our haste to observe the chicken crossing?"
Jerry Seinfeld: Why does anyone cross a road? I mean, why doesn't anyone ever think to ask, "What the heck was this chicken doing walking around all over the place anyway?"
Martin Luther King, Jr.: I envision a world where all chickens will be free to cross roads without having their motives called into question.
Dirk Gently (Holistic Detective): I'm not exactly sure why, but right now I've got a horse in my bathroom.
Bill Gates: I have just released the new Chicken 2000, which will both cross roads AND balance your checkbook, though when it divides 3 by 2 it gets 1.4999999999.
M.C.Escher: That depends on which plane of reality the chicken was on at the time.
George Orwell: Because the government had fooled him into thinking that he was crossing the road of his own free will, when he was really only serving their interests.
Colonel Sanders: I missed one?
Plato: For the greater good.
Aristotle: To actualize its potential.
Karl Marx: It was a historical inevitability.
B.F. Skinner: Because the external influences, which had pervaded its sensorium from birth, had caused it to develop in such a fashion that it would tend to cross roads, even while believing these actions to be of its own freewill.
Jean-Paul Sartre: In order to act in good faith and be true to itself, the chicken found it necessary to cross the road.
Albert Einstein: Whether the chicken crossed the road or the road crossed the chicken depends upon your frame of reference.
The Sphinx: You tell me.
Buddha: If you ask this question, you deny your own chicken nature.
Emily Dickenson: Because it could not stop for death.
Ralph Waldo Emerson: It didn't cross the road; it transcended it.
Ernest Hemingway: To die. In the rain.
Saddam Hussein: This was an unprovoked act of rebellion and we were quite justified in dropping 50 tons of nerve gas on it.
Joseph Stalin: I don't care. Catch it. I need its eggs to make my omelet.
Dr. Seuss: Did the chicken cross the road? Did he cross it with a toad? Yes the chicken crossed the road, but why he crossed, I've not been told!
O.J.: It didn't. I was playing golf with it at the time.
Ø Searchin’ “You Tube” I found…
The Red Skelton Show"
Ø Daybook Information…
…Happening This Week:
19-25
· Meet A Mate Week
· Carpenter Ant Awareness Week
23-26
· Watermelon Seed Spitting Week
Ø TODAY IS
· National Pink Day: wear, eat, drink only pink
· Let It Go Day
· Public Service Day
· Estonia: Victory Day
Ø Today’s Events:
… IN ARTS
1955 - Walt Disney's "Lady & the Tramp" released
1970 - "Red Skelton Show," last airs on CBS-TV, moved to NBC-TV
1970 - Rocker Chubby Checker arrested for marijuana possession
2004 - Bob Dylan accepts honorary doctor of music degree from the University of St Andrews, Scotland's oldest university
… IN ATHLETICS
1775 - 1st regatta held on Thames, England
1894 - The International Olympic Committee is founded at the Sorbonne
1967 - Jim Ryun sets mile record (3:51.1, Bakersfield CA)
1972 - Pres Nixon signs act barring sex discrimination in college sports
… IN BUSINESS
1810 - John Jacob Astor organizes Pacific Fur Co (Astoria, Oregon)
1938 - Civil Aeronautics Authority (US) established
1938 - Marineland opens in Florida-1st aquarium
… IN EDUCATION
▬
… FOR INDIGENOUS PEOPLE
1683 - William Penn and Delaware Chief Tamenend will sign a peace treaty in Shackamoxon, Pennsylvania. Tamenend was also called Tammany. He is renowned for his honor. The Tammany societies were named so in his honor.
1704: James Moore, former Governor of South Carolina, is leading a force of 50 British, and 1,000 CREEKs against Spanish settlements of Mission of San Pedro y San Pable at Patale, in north-western Florida. They will take many Indians as slaves and kill Father Manuel de Mendoza.
… IN INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
1993 - UN authorizes worldwide oil embargo against Haiti
1994 - South Africa reclaims its seat in UN
… IN RELIGION
▬
… IN SCIENCE
1925 - Landslides create 3-mile long "Slide Lake" (Gros Ventre Wyoming)
1949 - 1st 12 women graduate from Harvard Medical School
… IN US POLITICS
1860 - Congress establishes Government Printing Office
1888 - Frederick Douglass is 1st African-American nominated for president
1986 - Tip O'Neill refuses to let Reagan address House
… ARTISTS: AUTHORS: COMPOSERS
▬
…ATHLETES
Tony Hill, American football player turns 55
1940 - Wilma Rudolph, runner (Olympic-3 gold-1960)
…ENTERTAINERS (ACTORS/SINGERS…)
Selma Blair, actor turns 39
1929 - June Carter Cash, country singer (Johnny Cash Show)
1933 - Bert Convy, game show host (Win, Lose or Draw)
Mark DeCarlo actor turns 49
… ENTREPRENEUR & EDUCATORS
▬
…POLITICIANS
47 BC - Pharaoh Ptolemy XV of Egypt
1456 - Margaret of Denmark, wife of James III of Scotland
Clarence Thomas, 108th US Supreme Court Justice (1991- ) turns 63
…SCIENTISTS / THEOLOGISTS
1894 - Alfred Kinsey, entomologist/sexologist (Kinsey Report)
Ø Today’s Obits:
2009 - Ed McMahon, American television personality dies at 86
1998 - Maureen O'Sullivan, Irish actress dies at 87
1995 - Jonas Salk, biologist (Polio vaccine), dies of heart failure at 80
2006 - Aaron Spelling, American television producer dies at 83
Ø ANSWERS:
Trivia Quiz
1. In the X Files what is Mulder's first name?
Fox
2. Which of the Beatles was the first to be widowed?
Paul McCartney
3. Which Menacing US sitcom was screened as Just Dennis in the UK?
Dennis The Menace
4. In which country were the 1996 Olympic Games held?
United States--Atlanta
5. In Mask Jim Carrey starred as someone working where?
A bank
Chicago
7. What is the postal abbreviation for Indiana?
IN
8. Which Jeff starred in The Fabulous Baker Boys?
Bridges
9. IN 1998 actor James Brolin married which singer / actress?
Barbra Streisand
10. Bill Clinton was Governor of which state when he became President?
Arkansas
11. Wichita international airport is in which US state?
Kansas
12. The Dalai Lama fled which country in the 50s?
Tibet
Close Up Picture
Ø …AND THAT’S ALL FOR NOW
