June 12

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Today’s  Historical  Highlights

1787: Law passes providing a senator must be at least 30 years old

1839: 1st baseball game played in America

1897: Possibly most severe quake in history strikes Assam India, shock waves felt over an area size of Europe (low mortality rate given size of earthquake, 1500 casualties) 

1923: Harry Houdini frees himself from a straight jacket while suspended upside down, 40 feet (12 m) above ground in NYC

1942: Anne Frank gets her diary as a birthday present (Amsterdam)

1962: 3 convicts used spoons to dig their way out of Alcatraz

1964: Nelson Mandela is sentenced to life in prison in South Africa

1981: "Raiders Of The Lost Ark" starring Harrison Ford premieres

2008: Ireland rejects the Lisbon Treaty in a referendum, thus putting into question the reform programme of the European Union

♪Happy Birthday To: ♪ 

                   

 

Free Rambling Thoughts   

Another great summer day in Flag. So nice to have great weather. Sittin on the deck is so nice. Ran a few errands early this morning, then out on the deck.

My brother is switching from his Vespa to a bike. Too many close calls in NYC. Good for him. He’s recovering from a minor accident that hurt his hip…while he is recovering from his knee surgery. He said he guesses he isn’t 25 anymore.

Game   Center: (answers at the end of post)

Brain Game—A close up picture of what?

NPR Sunday Puzzle

My bad…typo yesterday…clue should have read ‘Indian’

Take two four-letter words and put three letters in front of both of them to complete two common seven-letter words. For example: for the words, GAIN and RACK, the added three-letter word would be BAR to form BARGAIN AND BARRACK.

1.     Give; tune:

2.     Arch; soon:

3.     Mach; rage:

4.     Grin; lice:

5.     Lain; lore:

6.     Sage; tiff:

7.     Each; rove:

8.     Ache; icky:

9.     Bang; riff:

10.  Lacy; lout:

11.  Ashy; urge:

What is the answer?

The following number has a rather special characteristic. What makes it unique?

8,549,176,320

4X4 Word Boxes

The answer to 1 across is the same word as the answer to 1 down; 2 across is the same as 2 down; etc. Can you solve these Word Boxes? Each answer is 3 letters.

1.              couple

2.              French abbot

3.              big nose bird

4.              remainder

Lifestyle  Substance     

Songs of the 1970’s

• Bohemian Rhapsody, Queen--1976

• My Sharona, The Knack--1979 

• My Sweet Lord, George Harrison--1970

• I Will Survive Gloria Gaynor--1979

Harper’s Index         

Number of US ome sales double-counted by the National Assoc. or Realtors between 2007 and 2010: 2,970,000

Found on You Tube 

       Returns tomorrow

Planet Earth—

Joke-of-the-day

A man and his girlfriend were out to dinner one night. The waiter tells them the night's special is chicken almandine and fresh fish. "The chicken sounds good; I'll have that," the woman says. The waiter nods. "And the vegetable?" he asks. "Oh, he'll have the fish," she replies.

Rules of Thumb   

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess

For every 550 feet in elevation, the boiling point of water falls by 1 degree Fahrenheit. To determine your elevation, measure the boiling point of water, subtract the temperature from 212 degrees, and divide the difference by 1.8. This will give you your approximate elevation in thousands of feet.

Yeah, It Really Happened

Austria: It seems a poor Austrian woman of some considerable girth passed away recently and the family decided to cremate the body.
As the temperatures in the crematorium reached 300 C (that is 572 F) the operators realized there was a problem. Her body fat was burning out of control. Thick black smoke started billowing out of the crematorium. The device was immediately switched off but by then the building had caught fire.Firemen, whose clothing was left covered with a layer of greasy black soot, eventually had to bring the fire under control by blasting water in through the vents used to clear the filter.
A spokesman said that after reports of similar problems at other cemeteries not only in Austria but also in Switzerland, officials were now are considering a ban on larger bodies.               

Somewhat Useless Information   

• Though it may seem that termites enjoy all wood, they will bypass ebony, a dense black wood yielded from various tropical trees in Southeast Asia.

• The wood of ebony sinks in water because it is so dense. It is the wood of choice for the black keys on pianos. 

Calendar Information        

Happening This Week:

10-16

   National Flag Week
   Jim Thorpe Native American Games
   Men's Health Week
   National Automotive Service Professionals Week

Today Is                                                                      

Abused Women and Children's Awareness Day

Crowded Nest Awareness Day

Loving Day

Machine Day

Multicultural American Child Awareness Day

National Peanut Butter Cookie Day

Russia: Independence Day (1990, from the USSR)

Today’s Other Events                                                             

1600’s

1665: English rename New Amsterdam, NY, after Dutch pull out

1700’s

1756: Today, DELAWARE Indians, led by King Beaver, will attack the fortified garrison in Juniata County, Pennsylvania, called Bingham's Fort. The number of settlers killed or captured was estimated to be as many as two dozen

1800’s

1855: Walla Walla Conference: Governor Stevens bypassed the entire structure of the American Constitutional System, giving Congress sole power to ratify treaties

1900’s

1917: Secret Service extends protection of president to his family

1935: Senator Huey Long of Louisiana spoke continually for 15½ hours in Senate's longest speech on record (150,000 words)

1955: "Mr Peepers" (TV Comedy) starring Wally Cox airs for last time on NBC

1990: Orioles Cal Ripken plays in his 1,308th consecutive game to move past Everett Scott into 2nd place on the all-time list

1991: Boris Yelstin elected president of Russian Federation

2000’s

2004: A 1.3 kilogram chondrite type meteorite strikes a house in Ellerslie, New Zealand causing serious damage but no injuries

2009: TSC: All television broadcasts in the United States switch from analog NTSC to digital ATSC transmission

  

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

Remembered for being born on this day

Anne Frank, Holland, Nazi victim/diarist (Diary of Anne Frank) in 1929

Charles Kingsley, [Parson Lot], Engl vicar/historian (Westward Ho!) in 1819

Harriet Martineau, controversial journalist, political economist, abolitionist and life-long feminist in 1802

Alphonse Ouimet, Canadian TV pioneer and president of the CBC in 1908

In their 80’s

George Herbert Walker Bush, MA, 43 VP (1981-89) 41st Pres (R, 1989-93) is 88

Vic Damone, [Vito Farinola], Bkln, singer (Street Where You Live) is 84

Jim Nabors, Sylacauga Al, actor/singer (Gomer Pyle) is 82

In their 60’s

Marv Albert (Marvin Philip Aufrichtig), NYC, "Yes!" sportscaster (NBC-TV)/back biter is 69

Today’s Obits                                                           

Bill Blass, American fashion designer dies of throat cancer in 2002 at 79

Nicole Brown Simpson, ex-wife of OJ, murdered in 1994 at 35  

James F "Jimmy" Dorsey, US orchestra leader, dies of cancer in 1957 at 53

Medgar Evers, NAACP official, shot in Jackson Miss in 1963 at 37

Thomas Farnaby, English grammarian dies in 1647 at 72

Ron Goldman, waiter, murdered with wife of OJ Simpson in 1994 at 27

Don Herbert aka "Mr. Wizard", American television host dies in 2007 at 89

Milburn Stone, actor (Doc-Gunsmoke), dies in 1980 at 75

Answers                                                                                                                                            

Brain Game: Close Up Picture

What is the answer?

It consists of the digits 0-9 in alphabetical order

NPR Sunday Puzzle

1.     Give; tune: for: forgive; fortune

2.     Arch; soon: mon: monarch; monsoon

3.     Mach; rage: sto: stomach; storage

4.     Grin; lice: cha: chagrin; lice

5.     Lain; lore: exp: explain; explore

6.     Sage; tiff: mas: massage; mastiff

7.     Each; rove: imp: impeach; improve

8.     Ache; icky: pan: panache; panicky

9.     Bang; riff: she: shebang; sheriff

10.  Lacy; lout: fal: fallacy; fallout

11.  Ashy; urge: spl: splashy; splurge

4X4 boxes

PAIR

ABBE

I B I S

REST

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  ☺