Dec 20, 2012

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Flagstaff Almanac:  Week: 51/ Day:     

Today: H   28°…L 17° Averages: H  42° L 16°

Records: H   62°(1958)…L -14°(1924)

Wind: ave:   12mph; Gusts:  34mph Today’s ave. humidity:  93%

Quote of the Day:

Today’s Historical Highlights:

"Graduate," starring Dustin Hoffman & Anne Bancroft, premieres—1967

"Harvey," starring James Stewart, premieres in NY—1950

1st international dogsled mail leaves Minot, Maine for Montreal, Que—1928

1st successful US cotton mill to spin yarn—1790 

Bob Hope became an American citizen—1920

Canadian Natl Railways established (N America's longest, 50,000 KM) —1919

Elvis Presley given draft notice to join US Army—1957

Ethiopia becomes socialist one-party state—1974

Hawaiian post office established—1850

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II becomes the oldest ever monarch 

     of the United Kingdom—2007

Missouri imposes a $1 bachelor tax on unmarried men between 21 & 50—1820

Richard the Lionhearted captured in Vienna—1192

SC votes 169-0 for Ordinace of Secession, 1st state to secede—1860

Trial against 21 camp guards of Auschwitz begins—1963

♪  ♪   Happy Birthday To: ♪. ♪   

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

Free Rambling Thoughts:   

Got our snow…about 5”. Clear and sunny all day. Wind chill drops the temps about 15°…not a day to spend much time outside. No more storms predicted for a while, so I should be able to get out of town easily on Friday.

 

I’ve been getting some great Holiday cards and letters. Much appreciated for sure. My Colorado tax story continues. Today I got a letter from the collection agency, giving me 30 days to pay up. Hmmm. Called Colorado Tax and Margaret said not to worry. Still no timeline available. This is so dumbfounding.

Game  Center: (answers at the end of post)

Duplicate Letter Puzzles

Find common words with certain letters duplicated in the given positions. V stands for a duplicated vowel, C stands for a duplicated consonant, L stands for any duplicated letter, and _ stands for any letter

C V L _ V L C

Lifestyle  Substance:     

Old Saying Explained:

A LONG SHOT

A long shot is an option with only a small chance of success. In the past guns were only accurate at short range. So a 'long shot' (fired over a long distance) only had a small chance of hitting its target.

Ok, then?

Movie Theme Songs you may remember:

Once ''Falling Slowly''

Read This Headline Carefully!!

Hotel, Japan:

YOU ARE INVITED TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE CHAMBERMAID.

Winter-ish cartoons:

Bet You Didn’t Know…from History Channel

Ethiopia and Liberia are the only two African nations that have never been under European colonial rule.

Harper’s Index:         

Percentage change in Chief Justice John Robert’s  approval rating among Republicans since his 2005 conformation: -60

Unusual Fact of the Day:

"Sternutation" is a fancy word for the act of sneezing.

Found on You Tube: 

• Arthur Rubinstein at 90 – INTERVIEW

• URI GELLER - Seeing is Believing

 Joke-of-the-day:

Holidays around the precinct are always lively, especially in the 911 areas.

One particular night, a drunk calls in, and the following communication began: 

"911, what is your emergency?"

"Osifer, I've been robbed!"

"Can you be more specific sir?"

"Osifer, someone stole my steering wheel, my gas pedal and my brake pedal."

"Could you please repeat that sir?" By now there's a crowd gathering around the dispatcher's chair.

"Yes, shur. Someone stole my gas pedal, my brake pedal and my steering wheel."

"Sir, what is your location?"

"I'm in my car."

"Sir, could you explain to me exactly where your car is located?"

"Yes, shur. I'm on Baker Street. Uh, 488 Baker!"

"Alright, sir, we'll send officers out to investigate it. Try to stay calm."

The phone call ends at this point but not five minutes later another call comes in. 

"911, what is your emergency?"

"Osifer?"

"Yes, what is your emergency please?"

"Osifer, this is me again. I just found my steering wheel, my gas pedal and my brake pedal."

"Okay, sir. Are you still needing assistance?"

"No, shur, I was just in the back seat."

Rules of Thumb:   

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess

USING PULLEYS

Two pulleys connected by a belt should be separated by at least the difference between their individual diameters.    

Yeah, It Really Happened

MUNICH, Germany - A German pool complex said a drunken guest biting police officers was the last straw leading to a three-drink limit for visitors. The Erding Thermal baths near Munich, which features a bar in a warm water pool, said it has had problems with drunken guests for years, but the last straw was a 35-year-old Austrian man who was naked and causing a disturbance in one of the saunas, The Local.de reported Tuesday. The complex said the man pushed a security guard into a pool and pulled out a chunk of the other man's hair. Police arrived and the man bit a female officer in the thigh and a male officer in the arm. Police said the man injured a third officer's shoulder. Officials at the resort said the incident has resulted in the imposition of a three-drink limit for guests. "This was the final straw," said Jorg Wund, manager if the Erding Thermal Baths. "Self control does not work."  

Somewhat Useless Information   

• Theree are 32 species of marine dolphins, four types of river dolphins, and six types of porpoises. The distinction between dolphin and porpoises is often blurred, but generally porpoises have spade-shaped teeth and blunt rounded faces. Dolphins have teeth shaped like rounded cones set in jaws that extend in a snout or beak.

• A baby dolphin is born tail-first to prevent drowning. After the mother breaks the umbilical cord by swiftly swimming away, she must immediately return to her baby and take it to the surface to breathe.

• A dolphin's body has adapted to avoid the bends (the formation of air bubbles in blood and tissue as a diver returns to the surface of the water) by completely collapsing its ribcage, forcing the air under pressure out of its lungs and into the windpipe and the complex air chambers that lie below the blowhole.

• Dolphins don't have a sense of smell, but they do have a sense of taste and, like humans, can distinguish between sweet, sour, bitter, and salty tastes.

• Dolphins also "see" with sounds. They emit a series of clicks and pings that travel long distances through water. When the sound hits an object, echoes are bounced back to the dolphin, enabling it to literally hear distance, shape, density, movement, and texture of an object.

• A dolphin can produce whistles for communication and clicks for sonar at the same time, which would be like a human speaking in two voices, with two different pitches, holding two different conversations.

Calendar Information        

Happening This Week:

16-1/5> Christmas Bird Count Week

16-24> Gluten-free Baking Week; Posadas

17-23> Saturnalia

Today Is                                                                      

Cathode-Ray Tube Day
Games Day
International Human Solidarity Day
National Re-gifting Day
Mudd Day: Dr. who helped JW Booth born in 1833

Today’s Events through History  

1669 - 1st jury trial in Delaware; Marcus Jacobson condemned for insurrection

     & sentenced to flogging, branding & slavery—1669

1st Space walk made by G Grechko from Salyut—1977

Bonnie Prince Charlie's army meets de Esk—1745

First same sex civil partnerships in Scotland are celebrated—2005

Ian Anderson & Glenn Cornick form rock group Jethro Tull—1967

Intl cantilever railway bridge opens at Niagara Falls—1883

Louisiana Purchase formally transferred from France to US for $27M—1803

NATO begins peacekeeping in Bosnia—1995

Tom Edison privately demonstrated incandescent light at Menlo Park—1879

US House of Representatives restricts immigration—1919

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

In their 60’s

Uri Geller, Tel Aviv, Israel, psychic (bends forks) is 66

Dick Wolf, television series creator (Miami Vice, Law & Order) is 66

Under 30

Jonah Hill, actor, producer, screenwriter, comedian is 29

Remembered for being born today

Walter S Adams, US astronomer/director of Mount Wilson (1876-1956)

Irene [Marie] Dunne, Louisville, actress (Show Boat, I Remember Mama) (1898-1990)

Harvey Firestone, Industrialist, where the rubber meets the road, (1868-1938)

Samuel A Mudd, doctor, convicted of giving medical aid to JW Booth (1833-1883)

John Spencer, actor (Tommy Mullanney-LA Law) (1946=heart attack-2005)

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           

Richard J Daley, (Mayor-D-Chicago)—1974—at 74

Bobby Darin, singer (Mack the Knife)—heart failure—1973—at 37

Robert Knox, Scottish surgeon, anatomist and zoologist—1862—at 71

Steve Landesberg, actor and comedian (Barney Miller)— colon cancer—2010—at 74

Max Robinson, 1st black network (ABC) TV anchor—AIDS—1988—at 49

Arthur Rubinstein, pianist (My Young Years)—1982—at 95

Dean Rusk, US Sect of State (1961-69)—1994—at 85

Sacagawea, Shoshone interpreter for Lewis & Clark—1812—at 24

Carl Sagan, scientist (Contact)— pneumonia—1996—at 62

John Steinbeck, author (Grapes of Wrath, Nobel 1940, 62)— heart disease—1968—at 66

Answer: Duplicate Letter Puzzles

 SERVERS

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  §