July 28

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

Flagstaff Almanac

Week: 30 Day:  210

Today: High   77°…Low 57° Averages: High   80°…Low 52°

Records: High   93°(1947)…Low 36°(1913)

Wind:  10 mph;  Gusts: 16mph

Big Afternoon Rain  Today’s humidity:  40%

Quote of the Day

Today’s  Historical  Highlights

2005 - The Provisional Irish Republican Army call an end to their thirty year long armed

            campaign in Northern Ireland

1994 - Last steel beam is placed on Cleveland's Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

1984 - 23rd modern Olympic games opens in Los Angeles…and I was there!

1977 - 1st oil through the TransAlaska Pipeline System reach Valdez, Alaska

1965 - LBJ sends 50,000 more soldiers to Vietnam (total of 125,000)

1933 - 1st singing telegram delivered (to Rudy Vallee), NYC

1931 - Congress makes "Star-Spangled Banner" our 2nd national anthem

1928 - 9th Olympic Games open in Amsterdam

1914 - Foxtrot 1st danced at New Amsterdam Roof Garden (NYC, by Harry Fox)

1868 - 14th Amendment ratified, grants citizenship to ex-slaves

1866 - Metric system becomes a legal measurement system in US

1858 - 1st use of fingerprints as a means of identification

1858 - Nadar takes 1st airborne photo (in a balloon)

♪Happy Birthday To: ♪ 

                   

 

Free Rambling Thoughts   

The day started out a little cloudy, then about 1pm raindrops started falling. By 1:15 we had a full blown lightning, loud crackling thunder, and rainstorm that lasted about 2 hours. So good for the forest, so nice for Flagstaff. There might have been some street flooding, but that was about it. I’m glad I took my walk in the cloudy morning…otherwise it wouldn’t have gotten done.

I’m all set to watch the opening ceremonies on TV tonight. I probably should have looked for a live feed somewhere on my computer or my phone, but I decided I wanted to watch them after dark. Should be a good show, no matter what Romney says. The march in is always enjoyable, as each country’s athletes carry their flag. After they are all in, the show and lighting of the torch is always exciting. Let the games begin.

I worked on my photos again today…good news, I’m almost ready to make the movies…bad news, I have to find a way to divide them up…right now, at 4 seconds/photo the movie is over 20 minutes. That is way too long for one sitting. So I’m looking at doing a four-parter, which will be better for viewing. The question remains, how to divide it. Since I saw so many animals and have so many shots, I really don’t want to put all the elephant shots together, or all the lion shots together as we saw them at so many different locations. I am also amazed at how patient we all were on the day drives. We might sit in an area for twenty or thirty minutes to see what was going to happen. This led to more shots of animals, especially the cats, who slowly moved and gave some very interesting pictures. Probably will post the animal shots tomorrow.

Game   Center: (answers at the end of post)

What is the answer?

What do the following words have in common?TO  BACK  OFF  SQUARE  SAIL

5X5 Word Boxes

The answer to 1 across is the same word as the answer to 1 down; 2 across is the same as 2 down; etc. Can you solve these Word Boxes? Each answer is 5 letters.

1.      fumble
2.      of the moon
3.      all-American Sam
4.      lie descriptor
5.      released
Hint:  upper left to lower right letters are F-U-C-S-D

Lifestyle  Substance     

Do you remember this?

Do you know what this word means?

               Tittle

My Latest Adventure—

Folk Rock of the 1960’s

• The Byrds:
"Mr. Tambourine Man." The mid-1965 #1 hit single that truly made folk-rock a phenomenon, socially, artistically, and commercially. The ideal combination of the Beatles and Bob Dylan.

• Bob Dylan:
"Like a Rolling Stone" The biggest and hardest-rocking hit by folk-rock's most noted (and covered) songwriter.

• The Byrds:
"Turn! Turn! Turn!" Another #1 single by the Byrds. A cover of a Pete Seeger song that was the ideal marriage of rock with a progressive social conscience. The song that, as the critical phrase went, rocked the Bible and got away with it.

• Simon & Garfunkel:
"The Sound of Silence" Not just Paul Simon's first great song, but the most canny realization of how a good acoustic folk song could be made over into an electric folk-rock hit, in this case through the literal overdubbing of electric instruments onto an acoustic recording.

Harper’s Index         

Percentage of Black Americans who believe in God: 80Percentage of Jewish Americans: 27

Found on You Tube 

Survival (London Olympics 2012 official song)      

Joke-of-the-day

When Albert Einstein was making the rounds of the speaker's circuit, he usually found himself eagerly longing to get back to his laboratory work. One night as they were driving to yet another rubber-chicken dinner, Einstein mentioned to his chauffeur (a man who somewhat resembled Einstein in looks & manner) that he was tired of speechmaking.
"I have an idea, boss," his chauffeur said. "I've heard you give this speech so many times. I'll bet I could give it for you." Einstein laughed loudly and said, "Why not? Let's do it!" When they arrive at the dinner, Einstein donned the chauffeur's cap and jacket and sat in the back of the room. The chauffeur gave a beautiful rendition of Einstein's speech and even answered a few questions expertly.
Then a supremely pompous professor asked an extremely esoteric question about anti-matter formation, digressing here and there to let everyone in the audience know that he was nobody's fool. Without missing a beat, the chauffeur fixed the professor with a steely stare and said, "Sir, the answer to that question is so simple that I will let my chauffeur, who is sitting in the back, answer it for me."

Rules of Thumb   

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess

If you get a group of 100 people online then one will create content, 10 will "interact" with it (commenting or offering improvements) and the other 89 will just view it.

Yeah, It Really Happened

FORT WAYNE, Ind. - A Fort Wayne, Ind., father pleaded guilty to driving while intoxicated, with four young children strapped to the hood of his car. Aaron Stefanski, 29, pleaded guilty Monday to three counts of neglect of a dependent and one charge of operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated, The (Fort Wayne) Journal Gazette reported. A storeowner called 911 earlier this year after seeing Stefanski and Jessica Clark secure their kids to the hood of his car using yellow tow straps. The responding officers caught Stefanski driving with his 4- and 5-year-old sons, his 6-year-old daughter and Clark's 7-year-old daughter strapped to the hood. When they stopped him, officers smelled alcohol on his breath. When asked why he strapped the children to the hood, court documents show Stefanski told officers: "I was only going to drive around the corner. I thought they would like it." Stefanski's blood alcohol content was 0.17, more than twice the legal limit. Clark has been charged with neglect of a dependent and her trial date is scheduled for next month. Stefanski's children were released into the custody of their mother. He will have supervised visitation and will be required to attend parenting classes.

Somewhat Useless Information   

• In September 2006, Chris Carr became "the fastest man on two wheels" when he pushed a specially equipped motorcycle to a record speed of 350.884 mph at the wide-open Bonneville Speedway.

• In 1921, Leslie "Red" Parkhurst steered a Harley-Davidson racing motorcycle to victory in several races, breaking several speed records along the way. He carried the team mascot - a pig - around the track on victory laps, a stunt that led to Harleys being commonly referred to as "Hogs."

• The first working airplane engine wasn't an airplane engine at all but a motorcycle engine. The Flyer I, piloted by the Wright Brothers in their famous 1903 flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, was powered by a 12-horsepower, chain-driven bike motor.

• Accounts vary greatly as to the cause of (and severity of) Bob Dylan's famous motorcycle accident on July 29, 1966, but the event undoubtedly had a profound effect on his songwriting and his playing. Some music historians believe that he used the occurrence as an excuse to take a much-needed break from his grueling schedule.

• Though their vulnerability makes them nearly useless today, armed forces made good use of motorcycles during the first half of the twentieth century. Harley-Davidson, Indian, and Triumph combined to produce more than 150,000 cycles for Allied military use during World War II, while BMW and other makers produced a smaller number of bikes for the Axis.

• A national group known as ABATE, American Bikers Aimed Toward Education, have long held the stance that helmet laws should not be made mandatory. Their slogan is: "Let those who ride decide."

Calendar Information        

Happening This Week:

27-29 

Garlic Days
World Lumberjack Championships

Single Working Women's Week

Today Is                                                                      

Buffalo Soldiers Day

National Chili Dog Day

National Dance Day

National Day of the Cowboy

National Milk Chocolate Day

Paddle for Perthes Disease Awareness Day (the ball of the thighbone in the hip doesn't get enough blood, causing the bone to die)

World Hepatitis Day

Peru: Independence Day (1821-from Spain)  

Today’s Events Through History  

2000’s

2005 - A tornado touches down in a residential area in south Birmingham, England, 

            causing £4,000,000 worth of damages and injuring 39 people

2002 - Nine coal miners trapped in the flooded Quecreek Mine in Somerset County,

            Pennsylvania, are rescued after 77 hours underground

1900’s

1996 - NY Yankee Darryl Strawberry hits his 300th HR

1973 - Skylab 3's astronauts (Bean, Garriott & Lousma) launched

1951 - Walt Disney's "Alice In Wonderland" released

1933 - Spain recognizes the USSR 1945 - US Senate ratifies UN charter 89-2

1915 - 10,000 blacks march on 5th Ave (NYC) protesting lynchings

1915 - US forces invade Haiti, stays until 1924

1900 - Hamburger created by Louis Lassing in Connecticut

1800’s

1896 - City of Miami incorporated

1883 - Shocks triggered by volcano Epomeo (Isle of Ischia, Italy) destroyed 1,200 

            houses at Casamicciola killing 2,000

1872 - Colonel Ranald S. Mackenzie and twelve officers and 272 enlisted men begin

            an extended patrol of the area surrounding the Texas Panhandle. They include

            twenty Tonkawa scouts. They are looking for renegade Indians.

1862 - Fort Bowie is established in the Apache Pass, in southeastern Arizona, by 

            members of Brigadier General James Charlatan's California volunteers

1851 - Total solar eclipse captured on a daguerreotype photograph

1500’s

1588 - Spanish Armada sails to overthrow England's Queen Elizabeth I

1586 - Sir Thomas Harriot introduces potatoes to Europe

1540 - English King Henry VIII marries Catharine Howard, his 5th wife

1100’s

1148 - Crusaders attack Damascus

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

In their 60’s

Vida Blue, major-league pitcher (Cy Young & AL MVP 1971) is 63

Bill Bradley, Crystal City Ms, Basketball (NY Knicks), US Senator (1979-1997) is 69

Georgia Engel, actress (Georgette-Mary Tyler Moore Show) will be 64

Linda Kelsey, Minneapolis, actress (Billie-Lou Grant, Kate-Day by Day) is 66

Sally Struthers, actress (Gloria-All in the Family) is 64

In their 70’s

Phil Proctor, comedian (Firesign Theater) is 72

In their 80’s

Darryl Hickman, actor (Human Comedy, Tea & Sympathy, Dobie Gillis) is 81

Remembered for being born today

Ibn al-'Arabi, Muslim mystic/philosopher - 1165

Joe E Brown, Holgate Ohio, comedian (Buck Circus Hour) - 1891

Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, NY, 1st lady (1961-63) - 1929

Beatrix Potter, England, children's author (Tale of Peter Rabbit) - 1866

Earl S Tupper, inventor (Tupperware) - 1907

Rudy Vallee, Vt, singer (Vagabond Dreams, My Time Is Your Time) - 1901

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           

Johann Sebastian Bach, German composer (Art of the Fugue), dies of stroke and 

           pneumonia in 1750 at 65

Ivy Bean, English internet celebrity dies in 2010 at 104

Thomas Cromwell, King Henry VIII's chief minister, executed in 1540 at 55

Cyrano de Bergerac, French dramatist/novelist, dies of tertiary syphilis in 1655 at 36

Friedrich Kaiser, astronomer (Kaiser-Compass), dies in 1872 at 64

William J Mayo, US surgeon/co-founder Mayo Clinic, dies  of stomach cancer

           in 1939 at 78

Charles W Mayo, US surgeon, dies in 1968 at 70

Maximilien Robespierre, Fr revolutionary/avocat (1781), guillotined in 1794 at 36

Suzuki Shosan, Samurai/monk/propagator of Zen Buddhism, dies in 1655 at 76

Grant Williams, actor (Shrinking Man), dies of toxic poisoning, in 1985 at 53

Answers                                                                                                                                            

Do you know what this word means?

A tittle is the dot of the lower case ‘I’ or ‘j’

What is the answer?

Each can be preceded by SET to make a new word or phraseSET TO,  SETBACK,  SET OFF,  SET SQUARE,  SET SAIL

5X5 boxes

FLUFF

LUNAR

UNCLE

FALSE

FREED

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  ☺