June 15

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Today’s  Historical  Highlights

1215 - King John signs Magna Carta at Runnymede, England

1752 - Ben Franklin's performs his kite-flying experiment

1804 - 12th amendment ratified; deals with manner of choosing president

1844 - Goodyear patents vulcanization of rubber

1846 - Oregon Treaty signed, setting US-British boundary at 49°N

1916 - Boys Scouts of America forms

1924 - Native Americans are proclaimed US citizens

1992 - Dan Quayle, relying on faulty card, erroneously instructs Trenton NJ, elementary student to spell "potato," "potatoe" during spelling bee

♪Happy Birthday To: ♪ 

                   

 Free Rambling Thoughts   

I am getting better faster than I thought. Very little coughing today and the codeine cough syrup is very good. I had lunch with my retirement friend Mary today as Cheryl decided to stay in CA for a couple more days with the grandkids. I had a great soup and sandwich at Wildflower Bread Co…one of the best lunch places in Flag. We ate outside on a covered patio and all was good. Mary got a letter from SS that she owes them big bucks ($4K) due to overpayments. I can’t figure out how this is possible. Someone made an input that her last working year salary was $13,100 instead of $31,100. It is an obvious input error and since she made more than was input, it would seem to me that she should be owed money, since monthly payment is based on what you paid in to the system. Local SS was no help, saying ‘just pay it’. Curious for sure. More to come.

I heard an interesting tidbit today. For those of us that use ATM cards to pay for stuff, rather than write a check, the bank charges the retailer an average of 45 cents per transaction. A new law will now limit that charge to 21 cents. Credit card purchases average about 22 cents to the retailer. Of course retailers add those charges to their merchandise as part of doing business. The banks are upset at losing that money and are trying to find ways to charge their customers to make up the difference. What a mess the banking industry is in. They have new minimum balances for free accounts, pay very low interest on savings. Banks are in the business of making money…and they will find a way to make as much as possible. All banks have to provide a terms and condition section when signing up for an account. Some of those are up to 70 pages long, written in bank language that even a savvy consumer will find impossible to understand. What a bunch of crap.

Game   Center: (answers at the end of post)

Brain Game—A close up picture of what?

NPR Sunday Puzzle Reduplicated Elements

Every answer involves reduplicative words. An example is ping pong, whereby the first half is the same as the second half, only the vowel changes. So if the clue is "table tennis," then the answer would be "ping pong."

1.     Sound of a doorbell:

2.     Sound of a clock:

3.     Completely reverse one’s political position:

4.     Rap music:

5.     A movie ape:

6.     Voice with repetitive rhythm:

7.     To traverse again and again:

8.     Sound of horse hoofs:

9.     Apex or peak:

10.  To make sharp turns left and right:

11.  To talk, informally:

12.  Disreputable persons:

13.  Deception or fraud:

14.  Hershey’s chocolate bar with wafer inside:

15.  To waste time:

16.  Unable to take a firm position:

17.  Rain sound or tiny feet sound:

What is the answer?

What is the next number in this series? 5   25   61   113   181 

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.               grime

2.               sugar...

3.               centimeter or gallon, for example

4.               measure

Lifestyle  Substance     

Songs of the 1970’s

• The Joker, Steve Miller Band 1974

• More Than A Feeling, Boston 1976

• I'll Be There, The Jackson 5 1970

• You're So Vain, Carly Simon 1973

Harper’s Index         

Rank of D.C. among urban US school districts with the widest achievement gap between black and white students: 1

Found on You Tube 

Operation Alert 1954: Newsreel       

Planet Earth—

Joke-of-the-day

Little Johnny returns from school and says he got an "F" in arithmetic.

 "Why?" asks the father.

 "The teacher asked 'How much is 2x3?' I said '6.'"

 "But that's right!" The father replied.

 "Then she asked me 'How much is 3x2?'"

 "What the heck's the stupid difference?" asked the father.

 "That's what I said!" 

Rules of Thumb   

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess

Composite national average cost per-mile to drive/own a car for 2007: 52.2 cents

Yeah, It Really Happened

Indiana has become the first state to allow citizens to shoot law enforcement officers in very specific circumstances.
The new law allows residents to use force, including deadly force, against public servants or law enforcement officers, who unlawfully enter their homes. It was signed by Republican Governor Mitch Daniels in March.The first of its kind in the United States, the law was adopted after the state Supreme Court went too far in one of its rulings last year, according to supporters. The case in question involved a man who assaulted an officer during a domestic violence call. The court ruled that there was "no right to reasonably resist unlawful entry by police officers."The National Rifle Association lobbied for the new law, arguing that the court decision had legalized police to commit unjustified entries.              

Somewhat Useless Information   

• Sammy Davis, Jr., Sandy Duncan, and Peter Falk all had or have one glass eye. Davis lost an eye in an automobile accident, while Duncan and Falk had theirs removed due to cancer.

• Prior to the discovery of anesthetic eye drops in 1884, cataract surgery was performed under general anesthesia, which made it all the more risky. Interestingly enough, the active ingredient in those first numbing eye drops was cocaine.

• In 1962, David Bowie got into a schoolyard fight over a girl. A punch in the eye from George Underwood resulted in a paralyzed pupil for Bowie, which is why the singer's eyes appear to be two different colors.

• If the white your eye can be seen over the top and bottom of your iris, the colored part of your eye, the doctor will immediately suspect thyroid problems. The excess hormones produced cause the tissue behind the eye to swell, which causes the eyeball to protrude.

• Your eyes are set back further in your head than your forehead or your cheeks so that if you receive a blow to the eye, your brow and cheekbone will take the brunt of the impact.

• Allan Pinkerton opened the Pinkerton National Detective Agency in Chicago in 1850. He and his employees specialized in covert, undercover work, and the company's logo, an unblinking eye with the motto "We Never Sleep," inspired the term "private eye."

Calendar Information        

Happening This Week:

10-16

   National Flag Week
   Jim Thorpe Native American Games
   Men's Health Week
   National Automotive Service Professionals Week
14-21

   Nursing Assistants Week
   US Open Golf Championship
   Duct Tape Days

Today Is                                                                      

Magna Carta Day 1215

Native American Citizenship Day

National Day of Prayer for Law Enforcement Officers

National Flip Flop Day

Nature Photography Day

Smile Power Day

World Elder Abuse Awareness Day

Today’s Other Events                                                             

Before 1000CE

763 BC - Assyrians record a solar eclipse that will be used to fix the chronology of Mesopotamian history

1200’s

1219 - Dannebrog - oldest national flag in the world - and flag of Denmark. According to legend, fell from the sky during the Battle of Lyndanisse (now Tallinn) in Estonia, and turned the Danes' luck

1300’s

1389 - Battle of Kossovo; Turks defeat Serbs

1500’s

1590 - Pope Leo X threatens to excommunicate Martin Luther

1700’s

1742: Conference regarding friendship and land cessions is held for the next four days between representatives of the British in New York and the "SIX NATIONS."

1762 - Austria uses 1st paper currency 1785 - 2 French balloonists die in world's 1st fatal aviation accident

1800’s

1836 - Arkansas becomes 25th state

1859 - Pig War: Ambiguity in the Oregon Treaty leads to the "Northwestern Boundary Dispute" between U.S. and British/Canadian settlers

1869 - Celluloid patented by John Wesley Hyatt, Albany, NY

1871 - Phoebe Couzins is 1st woman graduate of a US collegiate law school

1873: Sioux attack Fort Abraham Lincoln, in central North Dakota, again. The garrison repels the Indians

1876 - Tsunami's after earthquake floods NE coast of Japan, kills 28,000

1877 - Henry O Flipper becomes 1st black graduate at West Point

1896 - Tsunami strikes Shinto festival on beach at Sanriku Japan 27,000 are killed, 9,000 injured, with 13,000 houses destroyed

1900’s

1924 - J Edgar Hoover assumed leadership of the FBI

1934 - Great Smokey Mountains National Park dedicated

1940 - Bread & flour rationed in Holland

1943 - Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) forms

1953 - NYC Transit Authority forms

1954 - The Eisenhower administration stages the first annual "Operation Alert" (OPAL) exercise, an attempt to assess the USA's preparations for a nuclear attack

1962 - Students for a Democratic Society complete the Port Huron Statement

1967 - Gov Reagan signs liberalized California abortion bill

1983 - Supreme Court struck down state & local restrictions on abortion

1991 - Climactic eruption of the Mount Pinatubo volcano in the Philippines

1994 - Disney's "Lion King," opens in theaters with $42 million

2000’s

2002 - Near earth asteroid 2002 MN missed the Earth by 75,000 miles (120,000 km), about one-third of the distance between the Earth and the Moon

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

Remembered for being born on this day

Robert Russell Bennett, Kansas City, composer/arranger (Oklahoma!) in 1894

Edward, the black prince, prince of Wales (1343-1376) in 1330

Erik H Erickson, psychologist (Existentionalist) in 1902

Gotthard Günther, German philosopher in 1900

Waylon Jennings, country singer/guitarist (Ramblin' Man) in 1937

Jim Varney, Lexington Kentucky, American actor (Ernest Goes to Jail, Hey Vern) in 1949

In their 80’s

Mario M Cuomo, NYC, (Gov-D-NY, 1982-94) is 80

In their 60’s

Xaveria Hollander, [DeVries], Surabaya Indonesia, auth (Happy Hooker) is 69

In their 50’s

Wade Boggs, Nebraska, Red Sox/Yank 3rd baseman (AL bat champ 1985-88) is 54

James Belushi, comedian (Sat Night Live, Trading Places is 58

Terri Gibbs, Augusta Ga, blind singer (Somebody's Knockin') is 58

In their 40’s

Courteney Cox, American actress (Monica Geller - Friends) is 48

Helen Hunt, actress (Mad About You) is 49

Ice Cube (O'Shea Jackson), rap singer/actor (Boyz in the Hood, Anaconda) is 43

Leah Remini, actress (The King of Queens) is 42

In their 30’s

Neil Patrick Harris, Albuquerque NM, actor (Doogie Howser MD, How I Met Your Mother) is 39

Today’s Obits                                                           

John Cavendish, Lord Chief Justice of England, beheaded in 1381 at 35

John Connally, (Gov-D/R-Texas), dies of pulmonary fibrosis, in 1993 at 76

Ella Fitzgerald, singer, First Lady of the Blues dies in 1996 at 78

Victor French, actor (Get Smart, Highway to Heaven), dies of lung cancer in 1989 at 54

Walter W Heller, US economist (Old Myths & New Realities), dies in 1987 at 71

James Knox Polk, 11th Pres (1845-1849), dies in 1849 at 53

Meredith Willson, composer (Music Man), dies in 1984 at 82

Answers                                                                                                                                            

Brain Game: Close Up Picture

What is the answer?

265 (The series consists of the sum of the squares of 1 and 2,3 and 4, 5 and 6…)

NPR Sunday Puzzle

1.     Sound of a doorbell: ding dong

2.     Sound of a clock: tick tock

3.     Completely reverse one’s political position: flip flop

4.     Rap music: hip hop

5.     A movie ape: King Kong

6.     Voice with repetitive rhythm: sing song

7.     To traverse again and again: crisscross

8.     Sound of horse hoofs: clip clop

9.     Apex or peak: tip top

10.  To make sharp turns left and right: zig zag

11.  To talk, informally: chit chat

12.  Disreputable persons: riff raff

13.  Deception or fraud: flimflam

14.  Hershey’s chocolate bar with wafer inside: Kitt Katt

15.  To waste time: dilly dally

16.  Unable to take a firm position: wishy washy

17.  Rain sound or tiny feet sound: pitter patter

4X4 boxes

SCUM

CANE

UNIT

METE

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  ☺