Jan 5 2012


FYI: Click on any blue text for a link to more information!

Today’s  Historical  Highlights
  • 1993 - The oil tanker MV Braer, on the coast of the Shetland Islands, spills 84,700 tons of crude oil
  • 1972 - Pres Nixon signs a bill for NASA to begin research on manned shuttle
  • 1970 - 23,000 Belgian mine workers strike
  • 1961 - US breaks diplomatic relations with Cuba
  • 1940 - FCC hears 1st transmission of FM radio with clear, static-free signal
  • 1905 - National Association of Audubon Society incorporates
  • 1887 - 1st US school of librarianship opens at Columbia University

Happy Birthday To:                      
 
Free Rambling Thoughts   
This blog is taking a break until January 11th.

I had a great lunch with our retirement group. Cheryl traded in her two vehicles for a new RAV4…very cool. We shared Christmas stories with the various kids we were around. Also cool. We all agree that 2012 is going to be a great year.

I’m ready for my Merida trip. Mail on hold, paper donated, plants watered, passport ready. This trip is going to be short, but should be a lot of fun. Laura, my brother’s wife, has put together quite an itinerary. Each of us is being picked up by a driver holding my name…muy bueno. Never had that happen in all my travels. When I travel with Focus, our guide usually has a sign saying Focus Travel…that is used only at the airport. One of the things I like about Focus is that we aren’t following a sign everywhere we go. Our guide learns all our names, by the end of day one. Anyway, Merida is beautiful during the day and cool at night…I’m ready.

Game   Center   (answers at the end of post)
NEW—Brain Game

NPR Sunday Puzzle
2010.. You are given names you've probably never heard of before 2010, but that became famous during those 12 months. You must identify each person.
1.     Scott Brown: Senator from Mass who won Ted Kennedy’s seat
2.     Tony Hayward: Chairman of BP who said it ruined his vacation
3.     Shirley Sherrod: Ag dept released her over the phone while on duty in GA
4.     Elena Kagan: supreme justice appointee
5.     Steve Slater: jet blue steward who made news for quitting
6.     Julian Assange: Wikileak founder
7.     Kathryn Bigelow: best director for Hurt Locker
8.     Liu Xiaobo: Chinese Nobel winner
9.     John Tyner: ‘don’t touch my junk” to TSA guy
10.  Marc Mezvinsky: married Chelsea Clinton
11.  Paul the Octopus: world cup predictor
12.  Eyjafjallajökull: volcano in Iceland

Wuzzles  What concept or phrase do these suggest?

Lifestyle  Substance      
AZ Centennial is in days: Did you know?…
  • The amount of copper on the roof of the Capitol building is equivalent to 4,800,000 pennies.
  • Wyatt Earp was neither the town marshal nor the sheriff in Tombstone, Arizona at the time of the shoot-out at the O.K. Corral. His brother Virgil was the town marshal, who had temporarily deputized Wyatt, Morgan and Doc Holliday prior to the gunfight.
  • Arizona observes Mountain Standard Time on a year round basis. The one exception is the Navajo Nation, located in the northeast corner of the state, which observes the daylight savings time change.

Found on You Tube         

Harper’s Index         
  • Percentage of the current US debt that was accumulated during Republican presidential terms: 71

Joke-of-the-day
With high-definition TV everything looks bigger and wider. Kind of like going to your 25th high school reunion!
--
Man: Excuse me Miss, but were you born in Tennessee?
Woman: No, why?
Man: Because you’re the only ten-I-see!

Old-er people in the News
SUNSHINE Coast great-grandmother Terry Horder got the fright of her life when she accidentally stuck her eyes shut with super-strength glue.
The 78-year-old Wurtulla resident was defrosting the fridge when her eyes started watering and she reached for a bottle of allergy eye drops. But instead of grabbing the medicated drops she got Loctite 401 instant glue. The powerful adhesive was being kept in the fridge to avoid heat damage.
"That second my eyes were glued shut and I realised the glue was next to the drops in the fridge," Mrs Horder said.
Her husband of 57 years, Joe Horder, said his normally outspoken wife was suddenly very quiet. "Normally you can't shut her up but she went very silent and I just heard this little voice say 'Dad, I think I've glued my eyes shut'," Mr Horder said.
Mr Horder called Triple-0 and paramedics soon arrived to take her to Caloundra Hospital's emergency ward. Nurses then used vegetable oil to try to remove the glue, which had fused Mrs Horder's eyelashes together and seeped under the lids.
"There was a pool of glue against the eyeball itself but lucky it couldn't dry because of the water on the eye," Mrs Horder said.
"They soaked my eyes for around five minutes and then tried to pry the lashes apart, which wasn't pleasant. But about 10 minutes later I was good as new."

Rules of Thumb   
Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess
  • As a rule, the distance between your fingertips, with your arms outstretched at shoulder height, is equal to your height.

Somewhat Useless Information   
  • The popular toy company Lego began in the workshop of Ole Kirk Christiansen (7 April 1891 - 11 March 1958), a carpenter from Billund, Denmark, who began making wooden toys in 1932. In 1934, his company came to be called "LEGO", from the Danish phrase leg godt, which means "play-well".
  • Each Lego piece must be manufactured to an exact degree of precision. When two pieces are engaged they must fit firmly, yet be easily disassembled. The machines that make Lego bricks have tolerances as small as 10 micrometers.

Yeah, It Really Happened                 
CHARLTON, Mass. - A Massachusetts woman said her 5-year-old daughter burst into tears when police officers showed up at her door and demanded her overdue library books. Shannon Benoit of Charlton said she was shocked when Charlton Police Sgt. Dan Dowd showed up to her door and informed her that her daughter, Hailey, had two overdue library books and needed to either return the tomes or pay for them, WBZ-TV, Boston, reported Tuesday.
"I thought it was way overboard," Benoit said. "I closed my door, I looked at my daughter and she started crying." She said her daughter asked if the police were going to arrest her.
Dowd said the duty was not his choice. "Nobody wanted to, on this end to get involved in it," the sergeant said. "But the library contacted us, and the chief delegated, and apparently I was one of the low men on the totem pole." Benoit said she located and returned the books.

Calendar Information        
Happening This Week:
1-7
  • Celebration of Life Week
  • Diet Resolution Week
  • Silent Record Week
  • National Lose Weight/Feel Great Week
  • Someday We'll Laugh About This Week
  • New Year's Resolutions Week

5-9
  • Women's Self Empowerment Week

Today Is                                                                      
  • Asara B'Tevet  (Jewish fast commemorating the siege of Jerusalem)
  • Bean Day (a day to celebrate beans in every way)
  • Elvis' Birthday Celebration Day
  • Twelfth Night


Today’s Other Events                                                             
1500’s
1527 - Felix Manz, a leader of the Anabaptist congregation in Zürich, is executed by drowning

1700’s
1709 - Sudden extreme cold kills 1000s of Europeans
1781 - British naval expedition led by Benedict Arnold burns Richmond, VA

1800’s
1806 - Sacajawea tells Lewis and Clark she wants to see a dead whale washed up on the beach in Oregon.
1834 - Kiowa Indians record this as the night the stars fell
1852 - One in a series of treaties with California Indians is signed today at Temecula. The treaty is to set aside land and to protect the San Luis Rey Indians from Europeans.
1896 - German physicist Wilhelm Roentgen's discovers x-rays

1900’s
1900 - Irish leader John Edward Redmond calls for a revolt against British rule
1911 - Portuguese expel Jesuits
1914 - Ford Motor Co wages jump from $2.40/9-hr day(US2010- $53.53) to $5.00/8-hr day (US2010-$107.49)
1930 - Mao Tse-tung [Mao Zedong] writes "A Single Spark Can Start a Prairie Fire"
1937 - Only unicameral state legislature in US opens 1st session (NE)
1944 - The Daily Mail becomes the first transoceanic newspaper
1959 - "Bozo the Clown" live children's show premieres on TV
1976 - Cambodia is renamed "Democratic Kampuchea"
1981 - "Nightline" with Ted Koppel extended from 20 mins to 30 mins
1982 - Arkansas judge rules against obligatory teaching of creation
1993 - Reggie Jackson elected to Hall of Fame
1996 - Miami Dolphin coach Don Shula announces his retirement

Today’s Birthdays                                                           
In their 40’s
Marilyn Manson, entertainer is 43
Renaldo Turnbull, NFL defensive end (NO Saints, Carolina Panthers) is 46

In their 50’s
George Tenet, American CIA director is 59

In their 60’s
Diane Keaton, actor is 66

In their 70’s
Charlie Rose, newscaster is 70

In their 80’s
Robert Duvall, actor is 81
Walter Fritz Mondale, (Sen-MN)/42nd VP (1977-81) is 84

Remembered for being born on this day
Jeane Dixon, American astrologer in 1904
Paul C la Fargue, cartoonist/painter in 1729
King Camp Gillette, inventor (safety razor) in 1855
Sam Phillips, musician/record founder (Sun) in 1923
Zebulon Montgomery Pike, explorer (Pike's Peak) in 1779
George Reeves, [George Lescher Bessolo], actor (Superman) in 1914
Richard, 1st Earl of Cornwall, Holy Roman Emperor in 1209
Jane Wyman, American actress (Magnificent Obsession) and 1st Mrs Ronald Reagan in 1917
Xu Xiake, Chinese geographer in 1587

Today’s Obits                                                           
Sonny Bono, (Rep-Ca)/singer (Sonny & Cher), dies skiing at 62 in 1998
Max Born, German/British physicist (Nobel 1954), dies at 87 in 1970
George Washington Carver, scientist, dies at 81 in 1943
Calvin Coolidge, 30th President (1923-29), dies of heart attack at 60 in 1933
Amelia Earhart, American aviator declared dead after disappearance in 1937 at 42 in 1939
Rogers Hornsby, baseball player, dies of a heart ailment at 66 in 1963
Arthur Kennedy, actor (Air Force), dies of a brain tumor at 76 in 1990
‘Pistol’ Pete Maravich, American basketball player dies of heart failure at 41 in 1988
Tug McGraw, American baseball player, father of Tim McGraw dies of brain tumor at 60 in 2004 Thomas P "Tip" O'Neill, (MA)/Speaker of House (1977-86), dies at 81 in 1994
Don Wilson, pitcher (Astro), dies at 29 of carbon monoxide poisoning in 1975

Answers                                                                                                                                            
Brain Game

NPR Sunday Puzzle
1.     Scott Brown: Senator from Mass who won Ted Kennedy’s seat
2.     Tony Hayward: Chairman of BP who said it ruined his vacation
3.     Shirley Sherrod: Ag dept released her over the phone while on duty in GA
4.     Elena Kagan: supreme justice appointee
5.     Steve Slater: jet blue steward who made news for quitting
6.     Julian Assange: Wikileak founder
7.     Kathryn Bigelow: best director for Hurt Locker
8.     Liu Xiaobo: Chinese Nobel winner
9.     John Tyner: ‘don’t touch my junk” to TSA guy
10.  Marc Mezvinsky: married Chelsea Clinton
11.  Paul the Octopus: world cup predictor
12.  Eyjafjallajökull: volcano in Iceland
Wuzzle
  • A drop in the ocean
  • Away from home
  • Pieces of the puzzle


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] the dates may not be totally accurate.
    And That Is All for Now 

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Flagstaff, Arizona, United States
I retired in '06--at the ripe old age of 57. I enjoy blogging, photography, traveling, and living life to it's fullest.