Nov 10, 2012

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Flagstaff Almanac:  

Week: 45/ Day: 315   

Today: High   46°…Low 39°

Records: High   71°(1973)…Low 3°(1998)

Averages: High  53° Low 25°

Wind: average:   12mph; Gusts:  41mph

Today’s average humidity:  62%

Quote of the Day:

Today’s Historical Highlights:

1st Gideon Bible put in a hotel room—1908
1st observance of National Book Week—1919
Federal government shut down—1983
France ends forced worship of God—1793
Passenger ship Stephen Whitney is wrecked in thick fog off the southern
     coast of Ireland, killing 92 of the 110 on board. The disaster results
     in the construction the Fastnet Rock lighthouse—1847
Walt Disney begins serving as an informer for the Los Angeles office of the FBI—1940

♪  ♪   Happy Birthday To: ♪. ♪   

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

 Returns tomorrow

Free Rambling Thoughts:   

Chilly and wet. Morning started off with small hail, then rain, clouds blew in and out all day. Rain on and off all day. Not a day to be outside. Just a gloomy day.

 

FB is so interesting. A local sports commentator posted on FB that he had just had a stent put in and was doing fine. I messaged him as he was on line and told him that his story sounded just like mine---10 years ago. We talked, he is nervous, of course. My story telling him of having no problems in 10 years really helped his attitude. Glad he is doing well.

 

This country is so bi-polar sometimes. Thousands get out on the road to Get Out the Vote. Many communities make it difficult to impossible to have a counted vote. Lines of people up to 8 hours long are unacceptable in this day and age. Then there is the ‘early voting’ debacle. Turns out that the votes come in and get put in plastic containers until the polls close on Election Day. Then and only then do the counters start to verify the votes…comparing the signature on the envelope to the signature on file…all done by hand. It takes days to check all the votes. In AZ these counters are sitting at tables with no one ‘watching’ from either party. On Election Day there are always poll watchers from each party at every precinct…just to be sure there is no funny business. But, no one is watching the count of early or provisional ballots. Then there is the provisional ballot debacle in AZ. Back in 200i6, just after I moved to Flag, I went to a polling place and was told that I had to have a provisional ballot because I hadn’t lived at my address for 120 days…even though I was registered. I questioned it, but didn’t follow through because it was a local election. Now I wish I had become more involved, as I don’t know if my vote was even counted in the end. Turns out that provisional ballots are only counted in close elections…as determined by the county recorder. Really? We are better than this in this country. It’s time for a change and that time is now. I remember watching people in the Middle East and Africa going to the polls and having a purple thumb so they couldn’t vote again. Turned out the purple thumb could also lead to injury or death if the ‘wrong’ person won.  

Game  Center: (answers at the end of post)

Anagram Sentences: 5 letter anagrams

What are the missing words?

The horse had gotten tangled in foliage, so its owner had to _____ the _____ from the horse's _____ .

Lifestyle  Substance:     

Unusual Uses for Everyday Things: Vinegar

• First theory is that vinegar polishes chrome fixtures.RESULT: It works, it cleans it up nicely and doesn't leave a streak

• For dirty pots and pans: The grease after being soaked in vinegar came right off. I tried a bit of vinegar with some oil dropped right in and it, and the oil broke down pretty well.

• Some sources have suggested that cleaning a cutting board with vinegar will disinfect it.RESULT: Inconclusive because one can't see bacteria, but it cleaned off the stains on the board and left it looking cleaner.

• Killing weeds comes up as another use of vinegar, it takes a few days.

Old Saying Explained:

CHAP…This word is derived from the old word Chapman that meant merchant or trader. It in turn was derived from ceapman. The old word ceap meant to sell.

Ok, then?

TV Theme Songs you may remember:

The A-Team - Mike Post

Read This Headline Carefully!!

Queen Mary Having Bottom Scraped

People of Africa:

Flute Music from Around the World:

Native American Wooden Flute

Harper’s Index:         

Projected gross revenue of the US fertitily isdusty in 2013: $4,260,000,000
Rank of the US amoungh the world’s largest exporters of human sperm: 1

Ruminations:

It soesn’t matter how nice or expensive your car is, if you rev your engine on a residential street, you look like a jackass.

Unusual Fact of the Day:

When he died in 1977, Elvis Presley had $1,055,173.69 in a non-interest-bearing checking account.

Found on You Tube: 

• Susan Hayward - With A Song In My Heart One of my mom’s favorites Jane Froman singing
• Pata Pata by Miriam Makeba

Joke-of-the-day:

Mother asks little Johnny, as they wait for the bus, to tell the driver he is 4 years old when asked because he will ride for free. As they get into the bus the driver asks Johnny how old he was. "I am 4 years old". "And when will you be six years old?" asks the driver. “When I get off the bus" answers Johnny.  

Rules of Thumb:   

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess

LOSING A LOVED ONE…It takes five years to recover from the death of a beloved spouse.

Yeah, It Really Happened

 An Asian elephant named Koshik can imitate human speech, speaking words in Korean that can be readily understood. The elephant accomplishes this by sticking his trunk in his mouth.

As a juvenile elephant - a period when elephants are developing and forming bonds - it seems that Koshik was trying to connect with those around him. At the Everland Zoo in South Korea, humans were his only social contacts.

Unfortunately, after more than five years of association with humans his vocabular is limited to five distinct words. Koshik can say, "annyong" (hello), "anja" (sit down), "aniya" (no), "nuo" (lie down) and "choah" (good). Not exactly Franz Kafka, but pretty good for an elephant.

Somewhat Useless Information   

• Although the fad didn't take off until the 1970s, the first skateboards were mass-produced back in the 1950s, when the sport was promoted as "sidewalk surfing."
• The development of polyurethane wheels and the addition of kickplates to the back of skateboards are the two key factors that led to increased interest in skateboarding in the mid-1970s. The improvements allowed riders to travel faster and with more control than ever before.
• Before he found success on Saturday Night Live, David Spade worked at a skateboard shop. In fact, his talent on the device helped him land his first film role, that of a young skateboarding punk in Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol.
• Among celebrities who have broken bones while riding a skateboard are dancer Fred Astaire, comedian Tom Green, and guitarist Brian May.
• Despite improved safety measures, including helmets and pads for knees and elbows, as many as 80,000 emergency room visits annually in the United States are the result of skateboarding mishaps. 
• It is estimated that more than one third of the approximately 9 million skateboarders in the United States live in California.  

Calendar Information        

Happening This Week:

4-10 

Health Information and Technology Week ►International Fraud Awareness Week ►National Animal Shelter Appreciation Week ►National Nurse Practioner's Week►National Rad Tech Week

7-13

Dear Santa Letter Week ►Pursuit of Happiness Week

Today Is                                                                      

Area Code Day
Forget-Me-Not Day
Guinness World Records Day
Marine Corps Birthday
National Day of Play
Sesame Street Day—1969 first show
Windows Day (Microsoft)

Today’s Events through History  

1st long distance telephone call without operator assistance—1951

1st Woman's Christian Temperance Union meeting held (in Boston) —1891

41 suffragists are arrested in front of White House—1917

Andrew Carnegie forms Carnegie Corp (for scholarly & charitable works) —1911

Iwo Jima Memorial (servicemen raising US flag) dedicated in Arlington—1954  

Kentucky outlaws dueling 1808 - Osage Treaty signed—1801

Nobel for literature awarded to William Faulkner—1950

René Descartes has the dreams that inspire his Meditations on First Philosophy—1619

Vietnam Veterans Memorial opened—1982

William Weatherford's (Lume Chathi - Red Eagle) " Red Stick" Creeks are 

     an anti-white faction of the Creek Indians. 1,000 of them have surrounded 

     a pro-white group of Creeks at Talladega, in east-central Alabama—1813

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

In their 50’s

Donna Fargo [Yvonne Vaughan], NC, country singer (Happiest Girl in Whole USA) is 57

Sinbad [David Adkins] , comedian/actor (Different World, At the Apollo) is 56

Remembered for being born today

Richard Burton, South Wales, actor (Cleopatra, Virginia Woolf) (1925-1984)

Jane Froman, St Louis Mo, singer (Jane Froman's USA Canteen), (1907-1980)

Martin Luther, Eisleben Germany, founded Protestantism, (1483-1546) 

Russell Means, Native American activist, (1939-2012)

Claude Rains, London, actor (Invisible Man, Casablanca) (1889-1967)

Roy Scheider, actor (Jaws, French Connection, Marathon Man, Paper Lion) (1932-2008)

Moise Tshombe, pres of Katanga, then premier of the Congo (Zaire) (1919-1969)

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           

Richard Chancellor, English explorer—shipwreck off Scotland—1556—at 35ish

Cornstalk, Shawnee chief—killed by soldiers while in captivity—1777—at 57ish

Chuck Connors, US NBA/baseballer/actor (Rifleman)— Lung cancer—1992—at 71

Dino de Laurentiis, Italian film producer—2010—at 91

Ken Kesey, American author (One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest)—surgery 

      complications—2001—at 66

Miriam Makeba, South African singer and anti-apartheid activist—heart 

     attack—2008—at 76

Norman Mailer, American novelist——2007—at 84

Answer: Anagram sentence

The horse had gotten tangled in foliage, so its owner had to rinse the resin from the horse's reins .

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  §