August 28

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

Flagstaff Almanac…  

Week: 35 / Day: 241   Today: High   77°…Low 52°

Records: High   88°(1944)…Low 36°(1978)

Averages: High  77°…Low 48°

Afternoon Rain   Wind:   2mph;  Gusts: 23mph

Today’s Average humidity:  68%

Quote of the Day…

Today’s  Historical  Highlights…

2005 - Hurricane Katrina (category 5—175mph wind) hammers the south eastern 

           US, especially New Orleans, Louisiana, and coastal Mississippi

1998 - Pakistan's National Assembly passes a constitutional amendment to make 

            the "Qur'an and Sunnah" the "supreme law" but bill is defeated in the Senate

1994 - 1st Japanese gay pride parade

1981 - John Hinckley Jr pleads innocent in attempt to kill Pres Reagan

1963 - 200,000 demonstrate for equal rights in Washington, DC

1963 - Martin Luther King Jr's "I have a dream speech" at Lincoln Memorial

1949 - Riot prevents Paul Robeson from singing near Peekskill NY

1937 - Toyota Motors becomes an independent company

1883 - Slavery banned throughout British Empire

1867 - US occupies Midway Islands in Pacific

♪   Happy Birthday To: ♪.. 

How many can you identify…answers in Today’s Birthdays

 

Free Rambling Thoughts…   

 A nice way to start the week. Real nice morning walk. Then some time on the deck reading the paper.

Tomorrow is our primary election, so it’s off o the polls. With the new districts my polling place has changed. Now it is at the end of my street, instead of being a couple of miles away. It moved from the Baptist church to the Lutheran Church. Many of my friends here in Flagstaff also had their polling place change. I still believe that every election is important.

Both CNN and MSNBC are running lots of convention coverage…even the shortened day (about 10 minutes) didn’t stop the coverage…lots of interviews, lots of talk. Haven’t heard much new, but it is the American process. And everyone is talking about the weather…hopefully Hurricane Isaac will not bring any more havoc to any of the US. One new thing is family history of Romney which is interesting.

Game   Center: (answers at the end of post)

What is the answer?

Answer the following clue in two rhyming words (e.g. an obese feline is a fat cat) If only one number is given, the answer is a word featuring internal rhyme (e.g. voodoo)

astute visual organs (4,4)

Rebus…

Can you figure out what this means?

Lifestyle  Substance…     

Do you remember this?

Read This Headline Carefully!!

 Man Struck By Lightning: Faces Battery Charge

Do you know what this word means?

What is this not so common name of a common object?

Dongle

Scottish Castles—…

60’s music…:

• Mason Williams Classical Gas (1968)
 Another in a long string of hits from 1968, Classical Gas was both composed and performed by Mason Williams, an American composer and poet. The track has been re-recorded and re-released numerous times, but the original recording features Mason on classical guitar with the backing of an orchestra. Featured on “The Mason Williams Phonograph Record”, the track quickly rose up the charts, peaking at #2 and helping the disc on which it was featured sell more than a million copies. In 1969, Classical Gas won three Grammy Awards, including Best Instrumental Composition and Arrangement. An interesting fact about the track; it was originally titled Classical Gasoline but was shortened to Classical Gas by the music copyist.

• Hugh Masakela Grazing In The Grass (1968)
 Hugh Masakela was the first artist to record Grazing in the Grass in March of 1968, and his original version continues to hold relevance even today. Composed by Philemon Hou, the track was actually inspired by another Masakela song from earlier in his career, Mr. Bull No. 5. The song showcases Masakela’s tremendous trumpeting abilities and it’s opening cowbells have helped distinguish it for audiences through it’s existence. The song quickly became a number one hit on the Billboard charts and helped sell over four million copies. Masakela went from South African star to US sensation, thanks largely in part to the success Grazing in the Grass had, eventually leading to numerous covers, most successful of which was the vocalized cover by the Friends of Distinction the following year.

Harper’s Index…         

• Percentage of all US divorces in which both parties were over the age of 50 in 1990: 10
• In 2010: 25
• Percentage change since 1970 in the marriage rate of US women between the ages of 30 and 50: -20

Unusal Fact of the Day…

General Robert E. Lee and his horse were buried at Washington & Lee University

Found on You Tube… 

RUTH GORDON TRIBUTE

Joke-of-the-day…A father and son went deep-sea fishing. Out at sea, the father sees his son drilling a hole in the boat, when asked what he was doing, the son replied, "there's water coming into the boat, so I made another hole for it to escape."

Rules of Thumb…   

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess

DEAD MAN'S CORNER: In the typical suburban shopping center, with a parking lot in front, the smart business man will avoid the area at the inside corner of an L shaped building. It may have a lot of floor area, but it typically has little frontage or exposure to the public view.

Yeah, It Really Happened…

Anchorage, Alaska: Poor advice from a car's GPS unit led a man to drive off the ferry in Whittier, Alaska and straight into the small boat harbor. The Anchorage Daily News reports the man and his two dogs were fine, but a cat inside a carrier drowned. The unnamed man had just arrived in Alaska from the Lower 48. He drove off the ferry but after about 400 feet, the GPS unit in the man's car told him to make a hard right turn. Whittier public safety director Dave Schofield says that was a misdirection, and it led the man down the ramp where people launch boats. The car was fully submerged when a man jumped in the water and broke the window open, allowing the driver and his dogs to escape. I'm not surprised the driver couldn't save himself. He was probably waiting for his GPS to tell him what to do.

Somewhat Useless Information…   

• The ancient Egyptians were enamored with onions, believing them to be signs of eternity. Not only were onions left in the tombs of pharoahs (presumably to enjoy in the afterlife), but also paintings depicting the vegetables could be found on the inner walls of pyramids.

• The Onion is best digested with a grain of salt. Many urban legends and hoaxes have been perpetuated when articles published by this news parody source fooled readers who (for whatever reason) didn't get the joke.

• Other ancient cultures also held the onion in high esteem. Both Roman gladiators and Greek athletes rubbed their bodies with onions, believing it helped keep the muscles firm.

• Onions are the first add-on item in the famous "hash brown sequence" that is part of the menu at Waffle House restaurants. You can order potatoes in any combination of scattered (on the grill), smothered (with onions), covered (with cheese), chunked (with ham), diced (with tomatoes), peppered (with jalapenos), capped (with mushrooms), and topped (with chili).

• Are the lyrics to The Beatles' song "Glass Onion" filled with mysterious imagery and odd clues? Hardly, according to John Lennon. In interviews, he admitted to adding nonsensical words and phrases in humorous response to the fans who had begun to think that all The Beatles' songs had some "deeper meaning." In Britain, "glass onion" is a slang term for a monocle.

• In Toombs County, Georgia, farmer Mose Coleman had a hard time giving away the onions he grew in 1931, as they exhibited an unusually sweet taste. After offering them at cut-rate prices, he found that the same customers kept coming back for more of them. The variety is now known as the Vidalia onion.

Calendar Information…        

Happening This Week:

25-31

Be Kind To Humankind Week
National Safe at Home Week

Today Is…                                                                      

Crackers Over The Keyboard Day

Dream Day Quest and Jubilee (1963 MLK ‘Dream Speech’)

Race Your Mouse Around the Icons Day

Radio Commercials Day

World Sauntering Day

Today’s Events Through History…  

2000’s

2003 - An electricity blackout cuts off power to around 500,000 people living 

            in south east England and brings 60% of London's underground rail network to 

            a halt

1900’s

1988 - 70 killed in crash of 3 Italian AF fighters at air show in Germany

1973 - "Monster Mash" and "Smoke on the Water" go gold

1968 - Police & anti-war demonstrators clash at Chicago's Dem Nat’l Convention

1957 - Sen Thurmond begins 24-hr filibuster against civil rights bill

1907 - United Parcel Service begins service, in Seattle founded by James E. Casey

1800’s

1884 - 1st known photograph of a tornado is made near Howard SD

1845 - Scientific American magazine publishes its first issue

1837 - Pharmacists John Lea & William Perrins manufacture Worcester Sauce

1833: Assiniboines [Nakota] attack Piegan Blackfeet at Fort McKenzie, WY.

1700’s

 1789 - Sir William Herschel discovers Saturn's moon Enceladus

1600’s

1609 - Henry Hudson, discovers & explores Delaware Bay

1500’s

1565 - Leading an expedition of 1,500 soldiers and colonists, Pedro Menendez 

            de Aviles lands on the coast of Florida. His mission is to defeat the Protestants 

            in the area, and to claim the land for Spain; establishes oldest non-native city 

            in the US, St Augustine FL

1100’s

1189 - Third Crusade: the Crusaders begin the Siege of Acre under Guy of Lusignan

Before 1000CE

 476 - West Roman Empire formally disbands/emperor Romulus August ousted

Today’s Birthdays…                                                           

In their 30’s

LeAnn Rimes, country singer (Blue, Holiday in Your Heart) will be 30

In their 40’s

Jack Black, American actor (Shallow Hal), comedian is 45

Billy Boyd, Scottish actor (Lord of the Rings) is 44

Jason Priestley, actor (Brandon-Beverly Hills 90210) will be 43

Shania Twain, Canadian singer (You're Still the One) will be 47

In their 50’s

Beverley Goddard-Callender, Barbados, 4x100m (Olympic-bronze-1980, 84) is 56

Emma Samms, [Samuels], London, actress (Colby's, General Hospital) is 52

In their 60’s

 David Soul, actor (Starsky & Hutch) will be 69

Remembered for being born today

Charles Boyer, France, actor (Algiers, Fanny, Barefoot in the Park) b. 1899

Ben Gazzara, NYC, actor (Run for Your Life, QB VII) b. 1930

Lucy Ware Webb Hayes, 1st lady b. 1831

Jack Kirby [Jacob Kurtzberg], cartoonist (X-Men, Spiderman, Hulk, 

          Capt America) b. 1917

Nancy Kulp, Harrisburg PA, actress (Miss Hathaway-Beverly Hillbillies) b. 1921

Motonoboe, Japanese painter (Kano-school) b. 1476

Rokie Roker, Miami Fla, actress (Helen-Jeffersons) b. 1929

Peggy Ryan, Long Beach California, actress (Jenny-Hawaii Five-0) b. 1924

Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton, 1st American Catholic saint (1975) b. 1774

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Frankfurt, social philosopher (Faust) b. 1749

George Hoyt Whipple, US, astrophysicist (Nobel-1934-Medicine) b. 1878

Today’s Historical Obits…                                                           

Saint Augustine of Hippo, North African saint and theologian dies in 430 at 75

Alexander Carlyle, Scottish church leader dies in 1805 at 83

Jan Clayton, actress (Ellen Miller-Lassie), dies of cancer in 1983 at 66

Charles Darrow, US inventor of Monopoly, dies in 1967 at 78

Ruth Gordon, actress (Big Bus), dies of a stroke in 1985 at 88

Arthur Jones, American inventor of the Nautilus exercise machines dies in 2007 at 81

Frederick Law Olmsted, American landscape architect (Central Park) dies

           in 1903 at 81

Miyoshi Umeki, Japanese-American actress (Flower Drum Song) dies of 

          cancer in 2007 at 78

Wallerant Vaillant, painter, developed mezzotint process, dies in 1677 at 54

Answers…                                                                                                                                            

Do you know what this word means?

Is a small hardware device that plugs in to a computer, generally to authenticate a particular piece of software.  It is not usually used on home computers, but more on expensive high end software in big business. It is like a physical electronic key to prevent unauthorized use of the software on a computer.

What is the answer?

Wise eyes

Rebus

 The wrong end of the stick

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  ☺