Feb 17

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

Today’s  Historical  Highlights

1621 - Miles Standish appointed 1st commander of Plymouth colony

1801 - House breaks electoral college tie, chooses Jefferson pres over Burr

1870 - Mississippi becomes 9th state readmitted to US after Civil War

1915 - Edward Stone, 1st US combatant to die in WW I, is mortally wounded

1931 - 1st telecast of a sporting event in Japan (baseball)

1933 - 1st issue of "Newsweek" magazine published

1958 - Comic strip "BC" 1st appears

1959 - 1st weather satellite launched, Vanguard 2, 9.8 kg

1993 - Haitian ferry boat capsize in storm, 800-2,000 die

♪Happy Birthday To: ♪                     

  Returns tomorrow

Free Rambling Thoughts   

Running errands was the call of the day. Time for some serious grocery shopping. All worked out well, despite the fairly strong winds throughout the day. No rain, no snow, no moisture, just the damn wind. I’ve got to get my ride washed, with all the chemicals I have picked up from the road, but everyday looks like more moisture, so I procrastinate…not tomorrow though, unless it is actually snowing or raining. AZ just can’t enter the 21^st century. So sad. Two bills that were proposed in the legislature are perfect examples: first is the bill that will require school districts to fire teachers who use foul language in their classroom. On the surface it sounds like common sense. The problem is who determines the foul language…according to the bill, ‘you know it when you hear it.’ Really? The second one is even more interesting. It is aimed at Tucson School District and has to do with teaching controversial history. The bill would require teaching all sides to a subject and if a teacher doesn’t do that, fire them. Also fire them if they show a preference to one side or another. Again on the surface it sounds like good teaching practice. However, in this state, it could mean teaching that climate change is not happening, or that the earth is flat. I doubt that the legislator that proposed the bill really wants children to be taught of the horrors of the formations of the reservations in AZ in the past. Might be happy if someone taught that the holocaust never happened, or that we really never landed on the moon. Hopefully these bills won’t ever leave committee. Oops, just read that the cussing bill has left committee and is headed for a floor vote.

Game   Center   (answers at the end of post)

Brain Game

NPR Sunday Puzzle

Every answer today is a word used in football. Given three words, you give a word that can follow each to give a familiar two word phrase. The answer will always be a football term. For example, if the clue is "year, tag and dead," the answer would be "end."

1.     Stumbling, building, writer’s:

2.     Gold, bum’s, mad:

3.     Cattle, 4 wheel, hard:

4.     Corn, left, electromagnetic:

5.     Child’s, word, foul:

6.     Shopping, dead, daycare:

7.     Prison, national, rear:

8.     Bounce, stand, talk:

9.     Mountain, boarding, bus:

10.  Broken, thumbs, dumb:

11.  Punch, dust, cereal:

12.  Newspaper, toenail, coupon:

Wuzzles  What concept or phrase do these suggest?

Lifestyle  Substance     

Daffynitions: :-)

DUST: Mud with the juice squeezed out

LOCOMOTIVE — Insanity plea

Found on You Tube         

Chinese Lantern Festival

Harper’s Index         

Percentage by which Americans prefer having boys to girls: 40

Joke-of-the-day

Q: What did the traffic light say to the car? A: Don't look I'm changing!

Planet Earth

Returns tomorrow

Rules of Thumb   

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess

If you really wish to win your case, don't hire a lawyer who is in it for the cause. The cause will be more important to the lawyer than what is best for you.

Somewhat Useless Information    

The clockmaker Jost Burgi invented the cross-beat escapement, and the remontoire, two mechanisms which improved the accuracy of mechanical clocks of the time (late 1500's) by orders of magnitude. This allowed for the first time clocks to be used as scientific instruments, with enough accuracy to time the passing of stars (and other heavenly bodies) in the crosshairs of telescopes to start accurately charting stellar positions.In 1504, the first portable (but very accurate) timepiece was invented in Nuremburg, Germany by Peter Henlein. The first reported person to actually wear a watch on the wrist was the French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal (1623-1662). With a piece of string he attached a pocket watch to his wrist.

Yeah, It Really Happened                 

AMBRIDGE, Pa. - Police in Pennsylvania said a man seen with a bulging lip during a traffic stop turned out to have 23 pieces of crack cocaine in his mouth. Ambridge police said they pulled the pickup truck over at 2:38 p.m. because three men were inside but the vehicle only had shoulder belts for two, The Beaver County (Pa.) Times reported Tuesday. Police said a passenger, Frank Lee Turner, 56, of Ambridge, exited the vehicle during the traffic stop and was heard mumbling with a bulging lip when he was told to return to the truck. Officers said a piece of crack cocaine fell from Turner's mouth while he was struggling with them and he spat out 22 more individually wrapped pieces of crack cocaine when they used a Taser on him. Turner was charged with aggravated assault, resisting arrest and drug possession with intent to deliver.

Calendar Information        

…Happening This Week:

12-18 

Celebration of Love Week

Children of Alcoholics Week

Jell-O Week

Love a Mench Week

Random Acts of Kindness Week

International Flirting Week

14-16

World AG Expo

14-21

 National Condom Week

National Nestbox Week to provide bird houses for winter

NCCDP Alzheimer's & Dementia Staff Education Week

16-19

National Conference on Education

Great Backyard Bird Count

Today Is                                                                      

Champion Crab Races Day

My Way Day

National PTA Founders Day 1897 as Nat’l Organization of Mothers

World Human Spirit Day

***
China: Lantern Festival (During the Lantern Festival, children go out at night to temples carrying paper lanterns and solve riddles on the lanterns It officially ends the Chinese New Year celebrations.) Note: also known as the Yuanxiao Festival or Shangyuan Festival in China; Chap Goh Meh Festival in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore; Yuen Siu Festival in Hong Kong, and "Tết Thượng Nguyên" or "Tết Nguyên Tiêu" in Vietnam

Today’s Other Events                                                             

1600’s

1690: While traveling through the area, French explorer Henri de Tonti visits the  -Natchitoches Confederation near what is now called Natchitoches, Louisiana.

1700’s

1795 - Thomas Seddal harvests 8.3-kg potato from his garden Chester, England

1800’s

1854 - British recognize independence of Orange Free State (South Africa)

1867 - 1st ship passes through Suez Canal

1870 - Esther Morris appointed 1st female judge

1876 - Sardines 1st canned (Julius Wolff-Eastport, Maine)

1900’s

1904 - Giacomo Puccini's opera "Madama Butterfly," premieres in Milan

1913 - 1st minimum wage law in US takes effect (Oregon)

1934 - 1st high school auto driving course offered (State College, Penn)

1936 - -58°F (-50°C), McIntosh, South Dakota (state record)

1943 - NY Yankee Joe DiMaggio, enlists into the US army

1947 - Voice of America begins broadcasting to USSR

1953 - Baseball star/pilot Ted Williams uninjured as plane shot down in Korea

1967 - Beatles release "Penny Lane" & "Strawberry Fields"

1972 - President Nixon leaves Washington DC for China

1974 - Robert K. Preston, a disgruntled U.S. Army private, buzzes the White House with a stolen helicopter

1979 - Eric Heiden equals skating world record 1000m (1:14.99)

1986 - Johnson & Johnson announces it no longer sell capsule drugs

1997 - Carl Sagan Public Memorial at Pasadena CA

2000’s

2006 - A massive mudslide occurs in Southern Leyte, Philippines; the official death toll is set at 1,126

2008 - Kosovo declares independence from Serbia

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

In their 80’s

Hal Holbrook, Cleveland, actor (All the President's Men, Mark Twain) is 87

In their 70’s

Jim Brown, NFL full back (Cleveland Browns)/actor (Dirty Dozen) is 76

Bobby Lewis, rocker (Tossin' & Turnin') is 79 or 87

Mary Ann Mobley, Miss America-1959/actr (Diff'rent Strokes) is 73

In their 60’s

Dodie Stevens, actress (Mary Hartman!) is 66

In their 50’s

Daniel Ray "Danny" Ainge, basketball & football star is 53

Lou Diamond Phillips, Philippines, actor (La Bamba, Stand & Deliver) is 50

In their 40’s

Larry the Cable Guy, American comedian is 49

Denise Richards, American actress is 41

In their 30’s

Joseph Gordon-Levitt, actor (Tommy Solomon-Third Rock From the Sun) is 30

Paris Hilton, socialite is 31

Jerry O'Connell, actor is 38

Remembered for being born on this day
Arthur Kennedy, actor (Fantastic Voyage, Peyton Place) in 1914

René-Theophile-Hyacinthe Lannec,  French inventor (stethoscope) in 1781

Jock Mahoney, Chicago, actor (Dallas, Yancy Derringer, Day of Fury) in 1919

Gene Pitney, vocalist/songwriter (Town Without Pity) in 1941

A Montgomery Ward, found mail-order business (Montgomery Ward) in 1844

Today’s Obits                                                           

Geronimo (Goyathlay) dies at Fort Sill, Oklahoma at about 79 in 1909

Creek Chief Alexander McGillivray dies at about 43 in 1793

Molière, [Jean Baptiste Poquelin], French author (Learned Lady), dies of TB at 51 in 1673

Dan O'Herlihy, Irish actor dies at 86 in 2005

Lee Strasberg, acting coach/actor (And Justice for All), dies at 81 in 1982

Answers                                                                                                                                            

Brain Game

NPR Sunday Puzzle

1.     Stumbling, building, writer’s: block

2.     Gold, bum’s, mad: rush

3.     Cattle, 4 wheel, hard: drive

4.     Corn, left, electromagnetic: field

5.     Child’s, word, foul: play

6.     Shopping, dead, daycare: center

7.     Prison, national, rear: guard

8.     Bounce, stand, talk: back

9.     Mountain, boarding, bus: pass

10.  Broken, thumbs, dumb: down

11.  Punch, dust, cereal: bowl

12.  Newspaper, toenail, coupon: clipping

Wuzzle

• Black onyx
• The inside track
• She’s at the end of her rope

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  ☺