Feb 18

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Today’s  Historical  Highlights

1678 - John Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" is published

1745 - Bonnie Prince Charlie’s troops occupy Inverness Scotland

1841 - 1st continuous filibuster in US Senate began, lasting until March 11

1857 - Insurrection of Chinese in Sarawak, Borneo

1953 - "Bwana Devil," the 1st 3-D movie, opened in New York

1986 - San Antonio's Alvin Robertson scores NBA 2nd quadruple double-20 pts, 11 rebounds, 10 assists & 10 steals against Phoenix

♪Happy Birthday To: ♪                     

 

Free Rambling Thoughts   

Finally got the vehicle washed. So much better now, instead of all that chemical all over it. I’m not sure that the chemicals are better than cinders when we have light snowfall. I appreciate it when we have 6” or more, but the few inches we’ve had in the last three storms make it more of a hassle than cinders. It’s President’s Day weekend…very nice. Not sure if I’ll be doing anything spectacular to observe it, but it’s still a nice holiday. As we look back in history…to the time before I was around…we learn a lot about various Presidents and their impact on our country. Then there were their nicknames—here are a few: George Washington--Father of His County; Thomas Jefferson--Apostle of the Constitution; Martin Van Buren--The Little Magician; Millard Fillmore; The Accidental President; James Buchanan--The Do-Nothing President; Ulysses S. Grant--American Caesar; Theodore Roosevelt--The Rough Rider; Woodrow Wilson--The Phrasemaker; Harry S. Truman—Give 'em Hell Harry; Dwight D. Eisenhower--Kansas Cyclone. Happy President’s Day weekend.

Game   Center   (answers at the end of post)

Brain Game

NPR Sunday Puzzle

Every answer is the name of a college or university. Given an anagram, the contestant names the school. For example, if the clue is "lay" plus "e," the answer is "Yale."

1.     Worn + b:

2.     Royal + b:

3.     Alloy + o:

4.     Prude + u :

5.     Rhoda + w:

6.     Enroll + c:

7.     Boiler + n:

8.     Biventral + d:

9.     Enamored + t: [2 words]

Wuzzles  What concept or phrase do these suggest?

Lifestyle  Substance     

Daffynitions: :-)

CHEF — A cook with a large hat and a head to fill it

VOLUNTEER — Take on work that makes no cents

Found on You Tube         

Michelangelo Buonarroti - La Cappella Sistina

Harper’s Index         

Number of US counties in which life expectancy for women is lower or the same as it was in 1997: 860

Note: The US has: 3009 counties, 64 parishes, 16 boroughs, 41 independent municipalities or cities

Joke-of-the-day

One who runs in front of the car gets tired.
One who runs behind gets exhausted.

Planet Earth

Rules of Thumb   

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess

Reported error margins in polls and surveys are always under-estimates of the true error margin. According to the American Statistical Association: "Multiply the currently reported margin of error associated by 1.7 to obtain a more accurate estimate of the margin of error."

Somewhat Useless Information    

Louis Braille was born on January 4, 1809, in a town near Paris. At three years of age, an accident deprived him of his sight, and he was consequently sent to the Paris Blind School in 1819.

Louis desperately wanted to read, and he was only 12 years old when he invented the Braille system.

In Braille, any letter becomes a capital by putting dot 6 in front of it. For example, if "a" is dot 1, "A" is dot 6 followed by dot 1, and if "p" is dots 1, 2, 3, and 4, then "P" is dot 6 followed by dots 1, 2, 3 and 4.

Research has shown that the fastest braille readers use two hands, and two-handed braille also seems to make it easier for beginners to stay on the line.The average reading speed is 125 words per minute, although it is possible to read up to 200 words per minute.

A refreshable Braille display or Braille terminal is an electro-mechanical device for displaying Braille characters, usually by means of raising dots through holes in a flat surface. Blind computer users, who cannot use a normal computer monitor, use it to read text output.

Yeah, It Really Happened                 

LEECHBURG, Pa. — Police say a western Pennsylvania man who claims to have split personalities confessed to robbing a Chinese restaurant after reading about it in the newspaper and realizing he was the person who did it.Online court records don't list an attorney for 23-year-old Timothy Beer, of Leechburg, who's been jailed since surrendering in Sunday's robbery of the China King Restaurant about 35 miles northeast of Pittsburgh.Beer came to the police station Tuesday, saying he wasn't feeling well and "did something stupid."Beer told police he ordered food and became angry when he perceived the person waiting on him was continuing to speak Chinese. The next thing Beer remembers, he was playing video games at his cousin's home — but says he later realized he committed the robbery when he read about it in Tuesday's Valley News Dispatch.

Calendar Information        

…Happening This Week:

12-18 

Celebration of Love WeekChildren of Alcoholics WeekJell-O WeekLove a Mench WeekRandom Acts of Kindness Week
International Flirting Week

14-21

 National Condom WeekNational Nestbox Week to provide bird houses for winterNCCDP Alzheimer's & Dementia Staff Education Week

16-19

National Conference on EducationGreat Backyard Bird Count

Today Is                                                                      

Battery Day: (Volta's birthday)
Cow Milked While Flying In An Airplane Day Great Backyard Bird Count Perigean Spring TidesPluto  Day (Planet is Discovered by Clyde Tombaugh)
***Gambia: Independence Day (1964 for UK)

Today’s Other Events                                                             

1300’s

1332 - Amda Seyon I, Emperor of Ethiopia begins his campaigns in the southern Muslim provinces

1600’s

1688 - Quakers conduct 1st formal protest of slavery in Germantown, Pa

1700’s

1735 - 1st opera performed in America, "Flora," in Charleston, SC

1800’s

1804 - 1st US land-grant college, Ohio University, Athens Ohio, chartered

1856 - The American Party (Know-Nothings) convenes in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to nominate their first Presidential candidate, former President Millard Fillmore

1861 - Confederate President Jefferson Davis inaugurated

1885 - Mark Twain's "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," published

1900’s

1908 - 1st US postage stamps in rolls issued

1921 - British troops occupy Dublin

1954 - The first Church of Scientology is established in Los Angeles

1960 - 8th Winter Olympic games open in Squaw Valley

1968 - 10th Winter Olympic games close at Grenoble, France

2000’s

2001 - FBI agent Robert Hanssen is arrested for spying for the Soviet Union. He was ultimately convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

In their 90’s

Helen Gurley Brown, US author/publisher and editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan is 90

Barbara Hale, actress (Della Street-Perry Mason) is 91

In their 80’s

George Kennedy, actor is 87

In their 70’s

Yoko Ono Lennon, [Mrs John Lennon], Tokyo Japan, singer is 79

In their 60’s

Juice Newton, [Judy Cohen], Virginia, vocalist (Angel of the Morning) is 62

In their 50’s

Cybill Shepherd, actor is 62

John Travolta, actor, director is 58

Vanna White, TV letter turner is 55

In their 40’s

Matt Dillon, director, actor is 48

Dr. Dre, [Andre Romelle Young], American rapper and record producer is 47

Molly Ringwald, actor is 44

Under 30 years old

Rihanna, singer is 24

Remembered for being born on this day

Jacques Cassini, French astronomer (rings of Saturn) in 1677

Gladys Cooper, English actress (Margaret-Rogues) in 1888

Bill Cullen, TV game show host (over 20 different games) in 1920

George "The Gipper" Gipp, football star (Notre Dame) in 1895

Mary I Tudor, [Bloody Mary], Greenwich, queen of England (1553-58) in 1516

Jack Palance, [Walter Palanuik], actor (City Slickers) in 1920

Andres Segovia, classical Spanish guitarist in 1894

Count Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Gerolamo Umberto Volta, Italian physicist known especially for the invention of the battery in 1745

Wendell Wilkie, presidential candidate (R-1940)  /author (One World) in 1892

Today’s Obits                                                           

John Babcock, Last known Canadian veteran of World War I dies at 109 in 2010

Michelangelo Buonarroti, Italian sculptor/painter (David), dies at 88 in 1564

Harry Caray, sportscaster (Chicago Cubs), dies at 77 in 1998

Andy Devine, [Jeremiah Schwartz], actor (Andy's Gang), dies of leukemia at 71 in 1977

Dale Earnhardt, American race car driver dies in Daytona 500 crash at 50 in 2001

Thomas Hazlehurst, English soap and alkali manufacturer dies at 63 in 1842

Martin Luther, biblical scholar/religious reformer, dies of stroke at 62 in 1546

Robert J Oppenheimer, creator of atomic bomb, dies of throat cancer at 62 in 1967

Johnny Paycheck, American country singer/songwriter (Take This Job and Shove It) dies of emphysema and asthma at 65 in 2003

John Batterson Stetson, American manufacturer dies at 76 in 1906

Tamerlane, Mongol Emperor dies at 69 in 1405

Answers                                                                                                                                            

Brain Game

NPR Sunday Puzzle

1.     Worn + b: brown

2.     Royal + b: Baylor

3.     Alloy + o: Loyola

4.     Pude + u : Purdue

5.     Rhoda + w Howard

6.     Enroll + c: Cornell

7.     Boiler + n: Oberlin

8.     Biventral + d: Vanderbilt

9.     Enamored + t: Notre Dame

Wuzzle

• Hard times ahead
• The calm before the storm
• Winter overcoat

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  ☺