May 21

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Today’s  Historical  Highlights

1683: West Indian Company sells 1/3 of Suriname

1819: 1st bicycles (swift walkers) in US introduced in NYC

1840: NZ became a British colony

1846: 1st steamship arrives in Hawaii

1856: Lawrence Kansas captured, sacked by pro-slavery forces

1891: Boxers Peter Jackson & Jim Corbett fight to a draw in 61 rounds

1908: 1st horror movie (Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde) premieres in Chicago

1927: Lindburgh lands in Paris, after 1st solo air crossing of Atlantic

1964: 1st nuclear-powered lighthouse begins operations (Chesapeake Bay)

♪Happy Birthday To: ♪ 

 

Free Rambling Thoughts   

Amazing eclipse here in Northern AZ. Very pleased to see a friend made the front page of the local paper, talking about Navajo beliefs regarding the eclipse. I seem to have found a good setup for my deck…spent a few restful hours out there reading the paper and jammin’ on the iPod. Looking forward to lots more days out there this year. Quiet day…quiet night.

Game   Center   (answers at the end of post)

Brain Game—A close up picture of what?

NPR Sunday Puzzle

Given anagrams of the names of constellations plus one letter, name the constellations. For example, given "ray" plus L, the answer would be "Lyra."

1.      Sire + A:

2.     Bail + R:

3.     Iron + o:

4.     Card + O:

5.     Voir + g:

6.     Sutra + U:

7.     Pauses + g:

8.     Rosarium + n:

9.     Macaronis + J:

Riddle of the day

A white dove flew down by the castle. Along came a king and picked it up handless, ate it up toothless, and carried it away wingless.

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

Lifestyle  Substance     

Harper’s Index         

Number of people deported by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement during the 2011 fiscal year: 396,906

Found on You Tube 

Dorjee Sherpa's trip to Mt. Everest       

Planet Earth—

Joke-of-the-day

Two Antartians were walking down the street.
One stops and says, "Oh my god!!! A dead bird."
The other looks up and says, "Were, were?"*

BONUS 

A man will pay $2 for a $1 item he needs.
A woman will pay $1 for a $2 item that she doesn't need.

Rules of Thumb   

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guessYou should spend about four times your fee for a single gig on a suit or dress for your performance and one night's fee on the shoes.

Yeah, It Really Happened

Michigan -- A Michigan couple said their family will no longer be eating fast food after the woman's 14-year-old son found a piece of a human finger in his Arby's sandwich. Jamie Vail and Joe Wheaton said the woman's son, Ryan Hart, discovered the finger fragment when he bit into his Arby's junior roast beef sandwich at the Jackson restaurant and spit the object out to identify it as a piece of finger. Jackson Police and the Jackson County Health Department determined a worker had cut her finger on a meat slicer at the restaurant moments prior to the incident. Steve Hall, environmental health director for the Jackson County Health Department, said he believes other workers stepped in to the woman's station without being aware of what had taken place. Vail said she has obtained a lawyer but has not yet decided on a course of action. Wheaton said the long-term consequences of the incident are clear. "We don't eat fast food no more," Wheaton said.               

Somewhat Useless Information   

• Introduced in 1963, the very first Easy-Bake Oven was turquoise and came equipped with a carrying handle and fake stove top. In its first year, America's first working toy oven sold over 500,000 units.
• Although it achieved fame as a popular children's toy, Noah and Joseph McVicker originally invented Play-Doh in 1965 for use as a wallpaper cleaner. Although Play-Doh's exact makeup is a closely guarded secret, it is known to contain, among other things, wheat flour, water, salt, and some sort of petroleum distillate.
• First released by Atari in 1972, Pong is generally considered to have ushered in the video game era. An adaptation of table tennis or ping-pong, it was the first commercially successful video game.

For AZ centennial celebration: town names

• Bapchule, AZ (O’odham word): unincorporated town located in Pinal county; Its elevation is 1,197 feet (365 m)

• Bellemont, AZ: unincorporated community in Coconino County, Arizona about 18 miles from Flagstaff: population 231

• Big Park, AZ: census-designated place (CDP) in Yavapai County, Arizona also known as Village of Oak Creek; population 5,245; The racial makeup of the CDP was 95.56% White, 0.36% Black or African American, 0.36% Native American, 0.61% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 1.53% from other races, and 1.56% from two or more races. 6.79% of the population is Hispanic or Latino of any race.

• Bisbee, AZ: a city in Cochise County, Arizona, United States, 82 miles (132 km) southeast of Tucson, population of the city 6,177, founded as a copper, gold, and silver mining town in 1880, named in honor of Judge DeWitt Bisbee. The racial makeup of the city was 84.12% White, 0.46% Black or African American, 1.22% Native American, 0.49% Asian, 0.07% Pacific Islander, 11.07% from other races, and 2.58% from two or more races. 34.38% of the population is Hispanic or Latino of any race.

Calendar Information        

…Happening This Week:

15-21

National Dog Bite Prevention Week

National Educational Bosses' Week

National New Friends, Old Friends Week

National Police Week

National Transportation Week

World Trade Week

EMS (Emergency Medical Services) Week

19-25

National Safe Boating Week

21-27

Recreational Water Illness and Injury Prevention Week

National Medical Transcription Week

National Backyard Games Week

Week of Solidarity With The People of Non-Self-Governing Territories Old-Time Player Piano Week

Today Is                                                                      

American Red Cross Founder's Day 1881

I Need A Patch For That Day

National Endangered Species Day

National Memo Day

National Waitresses/Waiters Day

Sister Maria Hummel Day

Victoria Day

UN Work Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development

World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue & Development

Today’s Other Events                                                             

Before 1000CE

143: Earliest known date in Amer-pre Mayan king Harvest-Bergvorst installed

à

1500’s

1542: Hernando de Soto dies with a high fever in the village of Guachoyo, along the Mississippi River. Before his death, he appoints Luis de Moscoso to be his replacement. Fearing that the Indians might exhume his body, Moscoso has de Soto's body weighted down, and deposited in the Mississippi River.

à

1800’s

1832: 1st Democratic National Convention (Baltimore)

1832: As a part of Black Hawk’s War, a group of approximately fifty Potawatomis attack a settlement on Indian Creek near modern Ottawa, Illinois. Fifteen settlers are killed in the fighting. This is often called the "Indian Creek Massacre." This is also reported to have happened on May 20th.

1864: Russia declares an end to the Russian-Circassian War and many Circassians are forced into exile. The day is designated to be the Circassian Day of Mourning.

1900’s

1906: Louis H Perlman patents a demountable tire carrying rim for cars

1914: Greyhound Bus Co begins in Minnesota

1917: Leo Pinckney, 1st American drafted during WW I

1918: House of Representatives passes amendment allowing women to vote

1932: 1st transatlantic solo flight by a woman (Amelia Earhart) lands in Ireland

1944: Hitler begins attack on English/US "terror pilots"

1954: Amendment to give 18-year-olds right to vote is defeated

1961: Governor Patterson declares martial law in Montgomery

1969: Robert Kennedy's murderer Sirhan Sirhan sentenced to death

1979: Elton John becomes 1st western rocker to perform live in USSR

1980: "Empire Strikes Back" premieres

1990: Last episode of "Newhart" airs on CBS-TV

1994: South Yemen secedes from Yemen

2000’s

2001: French Taubira law officially recognizes the Atlantic slave trade and slavery as crimes against humanity

2004: Sherpa Pemba Dorjie climbs Mount Everest in 8 hours 10 minutes, breaking his rival Sherpa Lakpa Gelu's record from the previous year

2007: The Cutty Sark is badly damaged by fire in London, England. She was the last surviving clipper, now there is none

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

Remembered for being born on this day

Raymond Burr, BC Canada, actor (Perry Mason, Ironsides, Godzilla)in 1917

Peggy Cass, Boston MA, actress/TV panelist (To Tell the Truth, Mame) in 1924

Dennis Day, Irish tenor/comedian (Jack Benny Show, Danny Boy) in 1916

The Notorious B.I.G. [Christopher Wallace], New York City, New York, rapper (Life After Death)in 1972

Alexander Pope, London, English poet (Rape of the Lock, translation of Homer in 1688

Harold Robbins, NYC, author (Moneychangers, Carpetbaggers, Betsy) in 1916

Fats Waller, [Thomas Wright], jazz singer/composer (Ain't Misbehavin') in 1904

à

In their 60’s

Al Franken, comedian/writer/actor (SNL, Stuart Saves His Family)/US Senator (MN)is 61

Leo Sayer, [Gerard], England, singer (When I Need Love) is 64

Mr. T  [Lawrence Tureaud], Chicago, American actor (A-Team, Rocky III) is 60

In their 50’s

Bruce Buffer, American Mixed Martial Arts Announcer is 55

Judge Reinhold  Wilmington DE, actor (Fast Times at Ridgemont High) is 56

Today’s Obits                                                           

Al "Lash" La Rue, cowboy actor (Lash of the West), dies in 1996 of emphysema at 74

Vaughn Monroe, singer/orchestra leader (Vaughn Monroe Show), dies in 1973 following operation at 61

Alejandro Rey, actor (Carlos-Flying Nun), dies of lung cancer in 1987 at 57

Hernando de Soto, dies while searching for gold, near Mississippi River in 1542 of fever at about 45

Answers                                                                                                                                            

Brain Game: Close Up Picture

Riddle of the day

Snow melted by the sun

NPR Sunday Puzzle

1.      Sire + A: Aires

2.     Bail + R: Libra

3.     Iron + o: Orion

4.     Card + O: Draco

5.     Voir + g: Virgo

6.     Sutra + U: Taurus

7.     Pauses + g: Pegasus

8.     Rosarium + n: Ursa Minor

9.     Macaronis + J: Canis Major

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  ☺