May 15

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

Today’s  Historical  Highlights

1672: 1st copyright law enacted by Massachusetts

1718: James Puckle, a London lawyer, patents world's 1st machine gun

1862: Department of Agriculture created

1918: 1st airmail postal service (NY, Phila & Wash DC)

1934: Dept of Justice offers $25,000 reward for Dillinger, dead or alive

1942: Gasoline 1st rationed in US (17 Eastern States)

1948: Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq & Saudi-Arabia troops attack Israel

♪Happy Birthday To: ♪ 

 

Free Rambling Thoughts   

A little windy but a really nice day. Sometime during the night my bedroom screen blew off and landed on my deck. Quite a little shock when I was opening the window this morning with no screen. Easily fixed. I was out and about most of the morning, just enjoying our great weather.

Anderson Cooper of CNN did an amazing story on what is happening in Syria and Turkey. Thousands of refugees have fled to Turkey. To slow them down, the Syrian Army has placed land mines along the trails used to cross the border. Young Syrian men with no training in explosives are searching to the mines and taking them off the trails. Some are successful, others are not and loose feet, legs, arms. So sad. It appears the regions other governments are waiting for ‘someone else’ to step in and stop this.

Game   Center   (answers at the end of post)

Brain Game—A close up picture of what?

NPR Sunday Puzzle

Every answer is a word or familiar phrase of no more than 12 letters. The word contains at least four T's.

For example: A German city where the philosopher Hegel lived. Answer: Stuttgart

1.      A snitch:

2.     A Coke V Pepsi competition:

3.     An Oscar prize:

4.     Stuff put in the bottom of a cat box to absorb odors:

5.     Ice cream containing many kinds of fruit:

6.     Native people of Namibia known for their fierceness:

7.     Ready for some action, as on a date:

8.     Italian painter of the Renaissance:

9.     Image once seen on TV after a station went off the air:

10.  perfect vision:

11.    See-saw:

Riddle of the day

What goes round and round the wood but never goes into the wood?

Anagram: unscramble—numbers represent the number of letters in each answer word

Lifestyle  Substance     

Harper’s Index         

Minimum number of US colleges that offer cources in unmanned-drone operations: 5

Found on You Tube 

The Life and Death of Emily Dickinson        

Planet Earth—

Joke-of-the-day

An elderly couple stood before the family court judge after a long divorce trial. The judge asked why they wanted a divorce after having been married for nearly 70 years.
They answered:" We wanted to wait, till after the kids had died".

Rules of Thumb   

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guessNo matter how simple, all DIY plumbing projects will require 3 trips to the hardware store.

Yeah, It Really Happened

Lewiston, Idaho (AP) --A man says he reached down to pick up a stick lying in the gardening aisle of a Wal-Mart in Idaho, only to discover that it was a rattlesnake that then bit his hand.Mica Craig says he was shopping in the outdoor garden department of a Lewiston store when he was bitten Saturday. The 47-year-old man from Clarkston, Wash., says it latched onto his hand and that he screamed and managed to shake loose the snake and stomped it to death.The Lewiston Tribune (http://bit.ly/J4pfe5 ) reports a bystander drove Craig to a local emergency room. Craig says he was treated with six bags of anti-venom and was told that his hand could be permanently disfigured. 

Somewhat Useless Information   

Laughing lowers levels of stress hormones and strengthens the immune system. Six-year-olds laugh an average of 300 times a day. Adults only laugh 15 to 100 times a day.The color blue has a calming effect. It causes the brain to release calming hormones.

Calendar Information        

…Happening This Week:

10-16

Universal Family Week

12-19 

National Tourism Week

National Nursing Home Week

Reading is Fun Week

Salute to Moms 35+ Week

National Return To Work Week

National Women's Health Week

American Craft Beer Week

National Bike to Work Week

National Etiquette Week

National Hospital Week

15-21

National Dog Bite Prevention Week

National Educational Bosses' Week

National New Friends, Old Friends Week

National Police Week

National Transportation Week

World Trade Week

EMS (Emergency Medical Services) Week

Today Is                                                                      

Eastern Pacific Hurricane Season begins

International Day of Families

National Chocolate Chip Day

National Safety Dose Day

Nylon Stockings Day

Peace Officer Memorial Day

Straw Hat Day

UN International Day of Families

Japan: Hollyhock Festival
Mexico: San Isidoro Day
Paraguay: Independence Day (1811 from Spain)

Today’s Other Events                                                             

Before 1000CE

756: Abd-al-Rahman I becomes emir of Cordova Spain

à

1200’s

1252: Pope Innocent IV issues the papal bull ad exstirpanda, which authorizes, but also limits, the torture of heretics in the Medieval Inquisition

à

1600’s

1602: Cape Cod discovered by English navigator Bartholomew Gosnold

1700’s

1716: French commander Bienville sends three Natchez Indians to their village to bring back the head of a Chief, Oyelape, who ordered the killings of five Frenchmen. Bienville holds several other Natchez as hostages. From "friendly" Tonica Indians, Bienville learns that the Natchez are planning an attack on his makeshift fort on an island in the Mississippi River.

1791: Maximilien Robespierre proposes the Self-denying Ordinance

1800’s

1846: A treaty is signed by Texas Governor Pierce Butler, and Colonel M.G. Lewis (Meriwether Lewis' brother), and sixty-three Indians of the Aionai, Anadarko, Caddo, Comanche, Kichai (Keehy), Lepan (Apache), Longwha, Tahuacarro (Tahwacarro), Tonkawa, Waco, and Wichita tribes. It is ratified on February 15, 1847, and signed by President Polk on March 8, 1847

1869: National Woman Suffrage Association forms

1900’s

1905: Las Vegas Nevada founded

1915: A T & T becomes 1st corporation to have 1 million stockholders

1918: Washington Senator Walter Johnson pitches 1-0, 18 inning game

1919: Brooklyn Dodgers score 10 runs in 13th to beat Reds 10-0

1928: Mickey Mouse made his 1st appearance in  "Plane Crazy"

1933: 1st voice amplification system to be used in US Senate

1940: McDonald's opens its first restaurant in San Bernardino, California

1944: Eisenhower, Montgomery, Churchill & George VI discuss D-Day plan

1963: Peter, Paul & Mary win their 1st Grammy (If I Had a Hammer)

1970: Beatles' last LP, "Let It Be," is released in US

1972: George Wallace shot & left paralyzed by Arthur Bremer in Laurel, Md

1972: The island of Okinawa, under U.S. military governance since its conquest in 1945, reverts to Japanese control

1988: Moscow began withdrawing its 115,000 troops in Afghanistan

2000’s

2008: California becomes the second U.S. state after Massachusetts in 2004 to legalize same-sex marriage after the state's own Supreme Court rules a previous ban unconstitutional

2010: Jessica Watson becomes the youngest person to sail, non-stop and unassisted around the world solo

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

Remembered for being born on this day

Eddy Arnold, Henderson TN, country singer (Cattle Call , Anytime) in 1918

Pierre Curie, France, physicist (Nobel 1903) in 1859

Williamina Fleming, Scottish-born astronomer in 1857

Katherine Anne Porter, US, novelist (Ship of Fools) in 1890

Chief Nipo T Strongheart, Yakima, US Indian actor (Pony Soldier) in 1891

Johnny Walker (Badruddin Jamaluddin Kazi), Indian actor in 1923

James Mason, England, actor (Lolita, Bloodline, Boys From Brazil) in 1909

In their 70’s

Lainie Kazan, Brooklyn, singer /actress (Lust in the Dust, Beaches) is 72

Trini Lopez, Trinidad, singer/guitarist (If I Had a Hammer) is 75

In their 60’s

Miruts Yifter, Ethiopia, 5K/10K runner (Olympic-gold-1980) is 68

In their 50’s

George Brett, WV, KC Royal 3rd baseman (1980 AL MVP) is 59

In their 40’s

David Charvet, actor (Baywatch, Melrose Place) is 40

Emmitt Smith, running back (Dallas Cowboys, 3-time NFL rushing leader) is 43

Today’s Obits                                                           

June Carter Cash, American musician and singer (Wildflower) of complications from surgery in 2003 at 73

Emily Dickinson, US poet, dies of Bright's disease in 1886 at 55

Jerry Falwell, American evangelist dies of respiratory failure in 2007 at 73

Wayman Tisdale, American basketball player dies of cancer in 2009 at 44

Theodore H White, US journalist (Making of Pres, Pulitzer), dies from stroke in 1986 at 71

Answers                                                                                                                                            

Brain Game: Close Up Picture

Riddle of the day

The bark

NPR Sunday Puzzle

1.      A snitch: tattletale

2.     A Coke V Pepsi competition: taste test

3.     An Oscar prize: statuette

4.     Stuff put in the bottom of a cat box to absorb odors: kitty litter

5.     Ice cream containing many kinds of fruit: tutti fruiti

6.     Native people of Namibia known for their fierceness: Hottentots

7.     Ready for some action, as on a date: hot to trot

8.     Italian painter of the Renaissance: Tintoretto

9.     Image once seen on TV after a station went off the air: test pattern

10.  perfect vision: twenty-twenty

11.    See-saw: teeter-totter

Anagrams

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  ☺