All Blue text is a link…be sure and click on it for more information!
‡ TODAY’s “Geez”:
¬ 1964 - Prometheus, the world's oldest tree a Great Basin Bristlecone Pine (Pinus longaeva) tree growing near the tree line on Wheeler Peak in eastern Nevada, USA, is cut down-- was at least 4862 years old and likely approaching or over 5000 years
¬ 1984 - Carl Lewis wins 2nd (long jump) of 4 gold medals in Summer Olympics
‡ Free Rambling Thoughts…
My echo cardiogram showed that I have a strong heart, not to big, not too small. I showed no ‘back thrust’ and my heart is working as ordered. I don’t think I ‘ve ever had one before. I laid on my side, he gelled up a wand, and there were parts of my heart, right on the screen—much like a sonogram. He moved the wand along the space between my ribs and finally under my ribcage. No pain, no hassle, no shaving, no drugs. He did it for about 40 minutes and was pleased with what he saw. I got to watch it better after it was finished as he walked me through exactly what was good, and what would suggest problems, if the signs were there. As always he wanders off on other topics when explaining it—trying to make it more clear. The entire time took 90 minutes, but certainly made him feel better. It was good news for me too.
When we vote in 2012, I hope everyone remembers today—the day that the US lost its AAA rating to AA+ from Standard and Poors. The Republican leaders have said their number one goal is to have Obama be a one term president. This is so obvious. The manufactured ‘debt ceiling debate’ has been watched by many and now, some are taking action. We have our first non-white President and today was the first time in history that the US did not have a AAA Credit Rating. That dead beat dad in Congress who owes his ex $117,000 in unpaid child support and a tea party leader told the world that he will decide if and when he pays his court ordered bill. He and his buddies also seemed to believe that they would decide if and when the US government would pay their bills. Well the creditors of this global economy don’t operate that way. There are 17 countries with a AAA rating: Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Guernsey, Hong Kong, Isle of Man, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Sweden, Swiss Confederation, and the United Kingdom. Those with AA+ ratings: Belgium, New Zealand, and the United States of America. It will take years to regain our position. Our biggest creditor—China—has a AA- rating.
‡ Trivia Quiz…(answers at the end of post)
1. What are Hugh Grant's middle names?
2. What is the postal abbreviation for Oregon?
3. Calgary International airport is in which country?
4. What was Burt Lancaster's profession when he worked in the circus?
5. Who was the first Wimbledon men's singles champion after World War II?
6. The song ‘Bright Eyes’ is about what kind of animals?
7. In which decade of the 20th century was Jack Nicholson born?
8. What is the last word of Shania Twain's song ‘Man! I Feel Like A Woman!’?
9. What are the international registration letters of a vehicle from Fiji?
10. Which ex-Beatle recorded ‘The Girl is Mine’ with Michael Jackson?
11. In which year did Bill Hayley's ‘Rock Around the Clock’ first top the charts?
12. How many of his 71 professional fights did Joe Louis win?
13. In which state was Jack Teagarden born?
14. Sitar player Ravi Shankar came from which country?
‡ Zoom-ed in Picture…Can you Identify what this is? (Answer at end of post)
‡ Hmmmmm…
¬ Chances that an American opposes any cuts to Social Security, Medicare or education spending: 6 in 10
‡ Somewhat Useless Information…
¬ A diamond will not dissolve in acid. The only thing that can destroy it is intense heat.
¬ Of all the ore dug in diamond mines, only one carat in every 23 tons proves to be a diamond.
¬ The largest diamond-in-the-rough ever found measured 3,106 carats and weighed more than a pound and a quarter. It was discovered in 1905 by Sir Thomas Cullinan, who brought it back to England that same year. It was eventually given to King Edward VII on his 66th birthday.
¬ The Victoria-Transvaal diamond, mined in Africa in 1950 and one of the world's hundred largest and most famous diamonds, appeared in a Lex Barker-Dorothy Hart movie called Tarzan's Savage Fury. It was used to represent the eye of a jungle god.
¬ In 1928 a farmer named William Hones, while planting in a field in Petersburg, West Virginia, found a greasy, shiny stone, which he brought home as a kind of curiosity. Fifteen years later it was discovered that his finding was a 32-carat diamond, one of the largest ever found in America.
‡ Yeah, It Really Happened…
ALBUQUERQUE - An Albuquerque man said he was in a hurry to leave his home and drove off with a bank-bag filled with nearly $5,000 on the roof of his car. The man, who asked to be identified only as Jason, said he left home with the gray bank-bag on top of his car Friday and it was gone by the time he reached the bank, KRQE-TV, Albuquerque, reported Monday. "Bonehead move of the year. I was loading my children in the car and I put the money on the roof and drove off with it," Jason said. "Part of it was for mortgage, but the rest we're kind of doing a remodel on the house." Jason said he retraced his route but was unable to find any sign of the bag. "Maybe the right person will find it and know that times are tough and that someone needs this," he said.
‡ Guffaw…or at least smile…
Way to keep healthy level of insanity in the workplace
1. Page yourself over the intercom. (Don't disguise your voice.)
2. Find out where your boss shops and buy exactly the same outfits.
Always wear them one day after your boss does. (This is especially effective if your boss is a different gender than you are.)
3. While sitting at your desk, soak your fingers in "Palmolive."
4. Put up mosquito netting around your cubicle.
5. Every time someone asks you to do something, ask them if they want fries with that.
6. Put your garbage can on your desk. Label it "IN."
7. Determine how many cups of coffee are "too many."
8. Put decaf in the coffeemaker for 3 weeks. Once everyone has gotten over their caffeine addictions, switch to espresso.
9. In the memo field of all your checks, write "for sexual favors."
10. If you have a glass eye, tap on it occasionally with your pen while talking to others.
11. When driving colleagues around insist on keeping your car windshield wipers running in all weather conditions "to keep 'em tuned up."
12. Reply to everything someone says with "that's what YOU think?"
13. While making presentations, occasionally bob your head like a Parakeet.
14. Sit in the parking lot at lunchtime pointing a hair dryer at passing cars to see if they slow down.
15. Ask your co-workers mysterious questions and then scribble their answers in a notebook. Mutter something about "psychological profiles".
‡ Searchin’ “You Tube” I found…
‡ Daybook Information…
…Happening This Week:
1-7: Exhibitor Appreciation Week / Psychic Week / National Fraud Awareness Week / Simplify Your Life Week / Single Working Women's Week / World Breastfeeding Week
4-7: Rock for Life Week
‡ TODAY IS
¬ Assistance Dog Day
¬ Hiroshima Day
¬ National Mustard Day
¬ National Fresh Breath (Halitosis) Day
¬ Wiggle Your Toes Day
~*~
¬ China: Double Seven Festival
¬ Chinese Valentine's Day/Daughter's Day - 7th day of 7th Lunar Month
¬ Bolivia: Independence Day (1825 from Spain—recognized 7/21/1847 )
¬ Japan: Peace Festival
Jamaica: Independence Day (1962 from UK)
‡ Today’s Events:
· IN ARTS
--
· IN ATHLETICS
1890 - Cy Young pitches & wins 1st game
1936 - 1st time in 20th century, 1st 2 batters in a game-Roy Johnson & Rabbit Warstler of Boston Bees-lead off with HRs
1948 - Bob Mathias, US, wins decathlon at London Olympics
1979 - Marcus Hooper, 12, is youngest person to swim English Channel
· IN BUSINESS
1997 - Microsoft announces it will invest $150 million in Apple Computer Inc
· IN EDUCATION
1819 - Norwich University is founded in Vermont as the first private military school in the United States
· FOR INDIGENOUS PEOPLE
1676 - Weetamoo is the Sachem of the Wampanoag town of Pocasset, Rhode Island. The sister-in-law of King Philip, she leads as many as 300 warriors in battle. While trying to escape from European soldiers from Taunton, Massachusetts, she drowns in the Taunton River. Her head is cut off, and displayed on a pole in the town
1840 - Hundreds of Comanche, led by Buffalo Hump, surround, and attack Victoria, Texas. In the next two days, fifteen settlers are killed in the fighting. The Comanches take several hundred head of livestock
1901 - Kiowa land in Oklahoma is opened for white settlement, effectively dissolving the contiguous reservation
· IN INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
1538 - Bogotá, Colombia, is founded by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada
1661 - Holland sells Brazil to Portugal for 8 million guilders
1914 - Denis Patrick Dowd Jr. enlists in the French Foreign Legion, becoming the first American to fight in World War I
1965 - Indian troops invade Pakistan
· IN RELIGION
1774 - Founder of the Shaker Movement, Mother Ann Lee, arrives in NY
· IN SCIENCE
1181 - Supernova observed by Chinese & Japanese astronomers
1961 - 1st case of motion sickness in space reported
· IN US POLITICS
1787 - Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia begins debate
1930 - Supreme Court Justice John Force Crater disappears in NYC
1965 - Federal Voting Rights Act guarantees black voting rights
1966 - US citizens demonstrate against war in Vietnam
1809 - Alfred Lord Tennyson, poet laureate of England
1927 - Andy Warhol, artist/producer (Frankenstein, Bad)
· ATHLETES
Dale Ellis, NBA guard/forward (Seattle Supersonics, Denver Nuggets) turns 51
· ENTERTAINERS (ACTORS/SINGERS…)
Peter Bonerz, actor (Jerry-Bob Newhart Show, 9 to 5) turns 73
1911 - Lucille Ball, comedienne/actress (I Love Lucy, Mame)
1905 - Clara Bow, silent screen actress (Wings) "it" girl of 1920's films
1881 - Leo Carrillo, actor (American Empire, Cisco Kid)
Soleil Moon Frye actress (Punky Brewster) will be 35
1892 - Hoot Gibson, western actor (Horse Soldier, Last Outlaw)
Geri Estelle Halliwell, "Ginger Spice" singer (Spice Girls) turns 39
1917 - Robert Mitchum, actor (Winds of War, North & South)
· ENTREPRENEUR & EDUCATORS
1800 - Catherine Beecher, educator (championed higher education for women)
Marisa Miller, SI model turns 33
1990 - Jon Benet Ramsey, little beauty queen (murdered in 1996)
1902 - Dutch Schultz, American bootlegger
· POLITICIANS
1775 - Daniel O'Connell, Irish politician
1666 - Maria Sofia of the Palatinate, queen of Portugal
· SCIENTISTS / THEOLOGISTS
1881 - Alexander Fleming, English bacteriologist (penicillin; Nobel 1954)
Winston E Scott, USN Commander/astronaut (STS 72, 87) turns 61
‡ Today’s Obits:
1996 - Ossie Raymond Clark, fashion designer, stabbed by lover at 54
1623 - Anne Hathaway, wife of William Shakespeare, dies at 67
2009 - John Hughes, American film director dies of heart attack at 59
2004 - Rick James, American musician pulmonary failure [cocaine?] at 56
1637 - Ben Johnson, dramatist/playwright, dies after series of strokes at 65
1978 - Paul VI, [Giovanni Montini], Italian Pope (1963-78), dies at 80
1850 - Edward Walsh, Irish poet dies at 45
1881 - James White, co-founder of the Seventh-day Adventist Church dies at 60
1914 - Ellen Wilson, 1st lady (1913-14), dies of Bright’s Disease at 54 in White House
‡ ANSWERS:
Trivia Quiz
1. What are Hugh Grant's middle names?
a. John Mungo
2. What is the postal abbreviation for Oregon?
a. OR
3. Calgary International airport is in which country?
a. Canada
4. What was Burt Lancaster's profession when he worked in the circus?
a. Acrobat
5. Who was the first Wimbledon men's singles champion after World War II?
a. Yvon Petra
6. The song Bright Eyes is about what kind of animals?
a. Rabbits
7. In which decade of the 20th century was Jack Nicholson born?
a. 30s
a. Woman
9. What are the international registration letters of a vehicle from Fiji?
a. FJI
a. Paul McCartney
a. 1955
12. How many of his 71 professional fights did Joe Louis win?
a. 68
13. In which state was Jack Teagarden born?
a. Texas
14. Sitar player Ravi Shankar came from which country?
a. India
Close Up Picture
Parcheesi
Disclaimer: All opinions are mine…feel free to agree or disagree. All ‘data’ info is from the internet sites and is usually checked with at least one other source, but I have learned that every site has mistakes and sadly once out the information is out there, many sites simply copy it and is therefore difficult to verify. Also for events occurring before the Gregorian calendar was adopted [1582] may not be totally accurate.
‡ AND THAT’S ALL FOR NOW ‡
