Apr 17

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♪Happy Birthday To: ♪ 

Today’s  Historical  Highlights

1875 - "Snooker" (variation of pool) invented by Sir Neville Chamberlain

1905 - US Supreme court judges maximum work day unconstitutional

1932 - Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia ends slavery

1937 - Cartoon characters Daffy Duck, Elmer J Fudd & Petunia Pig, debut

1964 - Ford Mustang formally introduced ($2368 base/$16,464.01-2010USD)

1983 - India entered space age launching SLV-3 rocket

1988 - Ethiopian Belayneh Densimo runs world record marathon (2:06:50)

Free Rambling Thoughts   

A decent start to the week. It was easy to run some errands around town, not a lot of traffic, not many construction issues. Spring is always a unknown adventure in Flagstaff.

I caught a little bit of the GSA hearing in DC today. The head, in trouble for expenditures at a Las Vegas conference, was amazing. Every question he was asked was answered…with ‘on advice from my council, I use my 5^th amendment right.’ What a mess. Then there is the Secret Service scandal. One report today pointed out that prostitution is legal in Columbia and the only real issue is that secret service people didn’t pay the prostitutes for their service. I’m all for cultural diversity and have to wonder, if they had gotten prostitutes on American soil, where it is illegal, would they have to refused to pay, thinking that the prostitutes wouldn’t report them? Or did they think that being American meant they shouldn’t have to pay? Guess I’ll never know.

Game   Center   (answers at the end of post)

Brain Game—A close up picture of what?

NPR Sunday Puzzle

Every answer is a familiar two-word phrase or title in which one word starts with P-I, as in Pittsburgh, and the other starts with P-A. The P-A and P-I words can be in either order.

1.     1963 Peter Seller’s comedy:

2.     Noted Spanish cubist:

3.     Container that a cherry cobbler might be baked in:

4.     Pioneering 1990’s PDA device:

5.     It hits a small plastic ball in a rec room:

6.     Tablet to relieve arthritis and other aches:

7.     Charles Dickens’  first novel with The:

8.     Hollywood studio behind The Godfather and the Star Trek Films:

9.     Sound of little feet on a floor:

10.  A light shade of light red:

11.  Robert Browning work with “God’s in heaven, all’s right with the world”:

12.  Once numerous bird, now extinct:

13.  A place to eat a slice of pepperoni:

Riddle of the day

If you are a velophile, what is it that you love? 

Anagram: unscramble—numbers represent the number of letters in each answer word

Lifestyle  Substance     

Harper’s Index         

US Patent number assigned to a device for building the perfect snowman: 8,011,991

Found on You Tube 

    Castro, Kennedy and the Bay of Pigs   

Planet Earth—

Joke-of-the-day

At a divorce court a family of bears is waiting for the judge to grant custody of little bear.

 The judge asks the baby bear; “do you want to live with papa bear?”

The baby bear replied; "No he beats me. "

The judge asked, so do you want to live with mommy bear!

The baby bear said, "No she beats me too."

The judge asked, "Then whom do you want to live with?"

The baby bear says, "The Chicago bears, they don't beat anyone!"

Rules of Thumb   

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess

To protect your skin from the sun, use sunscreen when your shadow is shorter than you are.

Yeah, It Really Happened

It seems a California Highway Patrol office was briefly evacuated earlier this month when investigators became concerned that an arrestee might have been carrying a concealed explosive device.

When officers collared Steven Ferrini on a drug charge, a search of the suspect turned up "a suspicious wire, with an on/off switch" in his pants pocket. So they called in El Dorado County's "explosive ordinance disposal" team and evacuated "all unnecessary personnel" from the office.

The wire was found to extend from the pants pocket to the subject's anus and was connected to a vibrator. The bomb squad "rendered the device safe" and determined it was not dangerous.

The vibrator was subsequently removed and placed into property, hopefully after being washed or at least placed in a plastic bag.

               

Somewhat Useless Information   

From 1982 to 1997, cheer-leading accounted for 57% of the catastrophic injuries and fatalities among you female athletes.

Sports shooters, especially those who use indoor small-bore rifle ranges, risk lead absorption and intoxication, known to cause symptomatic neuropathy.

Calendar Information        

…Happening This Week:

14-22

National Park Week
Coin Week
Fibroid Awareness Week
National Environmental Education Week

National Karaoke Week

National Volunteer Week
National Pet ID Week

National Paperboard Packaging Week

Today Is                                                                      

Bat Appreciation Day

Blah! Blah! Blah! Day

Ellis Island Family History Day

International Ford Mustang Day

National Haiku Poetry Day

National Stress Awareness Day

Nothing Like A Dame Day

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American Samoa: Flag Day
Syrian Arab Republic: Independence Day (1946 from France)

Today’s Other Events                                                             

1300’s

1397 - Geoffrey Chaucer tells the Canterbury Tales for the first time at the court of Richard II. Chaucer scholars have also identified this date (in 1387) as when the book's pilgrimage to Canterbury starts.

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1500’s

1534 - Sir Thomas More confined in London Tower

1600’s

1629 - 1st commercial fishery established

1700’s

1704 - 1st successful US newspaper; published in Boston by John Campbell

1800’s

1818: Jackson sets out for Florida today to fight the Seminole

1864 - Bread revolt in Savannah, Georgia

1881 - One Bull arrives back at Sitting Bull's camp with a report on fort conditions.

1900’s

1907 - Ellis Island, NY-11,745 immigrants arrive

1924 - Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures & Louis B Mayer Co merged to form MGM

1956 - Willie Mosconi sinks 150 consecutive balls in a billiard tournament

1961 - 1,400 Cuban exiles land in Bay of Pigs attempt to overthrow Castro

1970 - Apollo 13 limps back safely, Beech-built oxygen tank no help

1978 - 82nd Boston Marathon won by Bill Rodgers of Mass in 2:10:13

1986 - IBM produces 1st megabit-chip

1987 - Julius Erving becomes 3rd NBA player to score 30,000 points

1993 - Police officers found guilty of violating Rodney Kings civil rights

2000’s

2002 - Four Canadian Forces soldiers are killed in Afghanistan by friendly fire from two United States Air Force F-16s, the first deaths in a combat zone for Canada since the Korean War.

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

In their 60’s

Olivia Hussey, Buenos Aires, actress (Romeo & Juliet, Death on Nile) is 61

In their 50’s

Sean Bean, English actor (The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, A Game of Thrones is 53

Boomer Esiason NFL quarterback (NY Jets, Cincinnati Bengals) is 51

In their 40’s

Jennifer Garner, actor is 40

In their 30’s

Victoria Beckham (Posh Spice-Spice Girls) is 38

Remembered for being born on this day

Marguerite Bourgeoys, founder of the Congregation of Notre Dame in 1620

John Ford, English dramatist ('Tis Pity She's a Whore) in 1586

J. P. Morgan, American financier US banker/CEO (US Steel) in 1837

Harry Reasoner, Dakota City Iowa, newscaster (60 Minutes, ABC, CBS) in 1923

Sergei Yuriyevich Vozovikov, Russian major/cosmonaut in 1958

Today’s Obits                                                           

St. Alexander of Alexandria, Patriarch of Alexandria in 326

Kitty Carlisle, American actress and television personality dies at 96 in 2007

Eddie Cochran, rocker ("Summertime Blues"), dies at 21 in a car crash in 1960

William Cardinal Conway, Northern Irish clergyman dies of cancer at 64 in 1977

Benjamin Franklin, US, (Poor Richards Almanac), dies at 84 in 1790

Linda McCartney, American-born wife of Paul McCartney dies of cancer at 56 in 1998

Frank McGee, Today show host, dies of cancer at 52 in 1974

Proclus, Greek mathematician, dies at 73 in 485

Dick Shawn, comedian (Producers), dies on stage at 57 in 1987

Kateri Tekakwitha, first American Indian to receive beatificationdies at 24 in 1680

Answers                                                                                                                                            

Brain Game: Close Up Picture--ribbon candy

Riddle of the day

bicycle 

NPR Sunday Puzzle

1.     1963 Peter Seller’s comedy:

a.      Pink Panther

2.     Noted Spanish cubist:

a.      Pablo Picasso

3.     Container that a cherry cobbler might be baked in:

a.      pie pan

4.     Pioneering 1990’s PDA device:

a.      Palm Pilot

5.     It hits a small plastic ball in a rec room:

a.      Ping Pong Paddle

6.     Tablet to relieve arthritis and other aches:

a.      pain pill

7.     Charles Dickens’ first novel with The:

a.      Pickwick Papers

8.     Hollywood studio behind The Godfather and the Star Trek Films:

a.      Paramount Pictures

9.     Sound of little feet on a floor:

a.      pitter patter

10.  A light shade of light red:

a.      pale pink

11.  Robert Browning work with “God’s in heaven, all’s right with the world”:

a.      Pippa Passes

12.  Once numerous bird, now extinct:

a.      Passenger Pigeon

13.  A place to eat a slice of pepperoni:      

a.      Pizza Parlor

Anagrams

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  ☺