June 17

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Today’s  Historical  Highlights

1579 - Anti-English uprising in Ireland

1856 - Republican Party opens its 1st national convention in Philadelphia

1885 - Statue of Liberty arrived in NYC aboard French ship `Isere'

1898 - US Senate agrees to annex Hawaii

1901 - The College Board introduces its first standardized test, the forerunner to the SAT

1963 - Supreme Court rules against Bible reading/prayer in public schools

1972 - 5 arrested for burglarizing Democratic Party HQ at Watergate

1991 - South Africa abolishes last of its apartheid laws

1994 - OJ Simpson doesn't turn himself in on murder charges, LA cops chase his Ford Bronco for 1½ hours, eventually gives up (seen live on TV)

♪Happy Birthday To: ♪ 

                   

 

Free Rambling Thoughts   

Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there.

The weather service says that ‘monsoon season’ started yesterday. This used to be based on humidity for a given number of days. Today we had 6% humidity…hardly looking like rain is our near future. It was also pretty warm so the forest just keeps drying out. One has to wonder.

As a fully certified channel surfer I caught some of the walk over Niagara Falls last night.  I had to wonder how many of the people on both shores as well as the number watching live were watching to see a tragedy or watching to see a victory…I guess I will never know as no one asked that question.

Our discussion group has decided to meet a couple of times this summer. We are all busy traveling, but found that this coming Saturday we can meet, so we’ll be discussing ‘cloning…the science…the ethics…the future’.  Should be a good discussion. I have some heavy reading ahead this week.

Game   Center: (answers at the end of post)

Brain Game—A close up picture of what?

NPR Sunday Puzzle A Day at the Opera

Every answer in this week's on-air puzzle is the name of an opera. The clues are in the form of anagrams. For example, if the clue is "moan-plus-R," the answer would be "Norma."

1.     Coat + s:

2.     Fats+ u :

3.     Cream + n:

4.     Foiled + i:

5.     Relate + k:

6.     Rotunda + t:

7.     Fireside + g:

8.     Dog handlers + i: (2 words)

What is the answer?

What do the following words have in common?FAST   THROUGH   DOWN   AWAY   WATER   NECK

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.     drag
2.     real estate quantity
3.     desire
4.     vegetable

Lifestyle  Substance     

One Hit Wonders of the 1950’s

• Sh-Boom, The Chords, 1955

• Earth Angel, The Penguins, 1955

• Black Denim Trousers, The Cheers, 1955

• Cry Me A River, Julie London, 1955

Harper’s Index         

Number of Predator drones patrolling the US border with Mexico: 6

Found on You Tube 

Cyd Charisse interview       

Planet Earth—

Joke-of-the-dayJoe was a single guy living at home with his father and working in the family business. When he found out he was going to inherit a fortune when his sick father died, he decided he needed a wife with whom to share his fortune.One evening at an investment seminar he spotted the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Her beauty took his breath away. “I may look like just an ordinary man,” he said to her, “but in just a few years, my father will pass, and I’ll inherit his large fortune.”Impressed, the woman took his business card and three months later, she became Joe’s stepmother.Women are so much better at estate planning than men!!

Rules of Thumb   

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess

There is one almost infallible way to find honest food at just prices: count the wall calendars in a cafe. No calendar: same as an interstate pit stop. One calendar: preprocessed food assembled in New Jersey. Two calendars: only if fish trophies present. Three calendars: can't miss on the farm-boy breakfasts. Four calendars: try the homemade pie, too. Five calendars: keep it under your hat, or they'll franchise.

Yeah, It Really Happened

STOCKHOLM, Sweden - A 61-year-old Swedish man who was relieving himself in the woods was caught on tape being knocked over by a bear chasing an elk. Ola Akesson said he left his summer cabin in the Angraan nature reserve to urinate in a stream Sunday night when he spotted a baby elk on the opposite side of the water, The Local.se reported Tuesday. "I called to my wife to get out the iPad to film the elk, when all of a sudden she screamed that there was a bear behind me," Akesson said. "I turned around and there was a huge bear right beside me -- maybe half a meter away, I could have reached out and touched it -- but I didn't even have time to think." Akesson was knocked to the ground and the bear, which the couple said they believe was after the elk, barreled into the waterside dock before scrambling back into the woods.

Somewhat Useless Information   

• The first recorded occurrence of the melody that we now sing as "Shave and a Haircut, Two Bits" is in an 1899 song by Charles Hale, called "At a Darktown Cakewalk." In 1914, Jimmie Monaco and Joe McCarthy released a song called "Bum-Diddle-De-Um-Bum, That's It!" utilizing those familiar seven notes.

• "Chopsticks" was published in London in 1877 under the name "The Celebrated Chop Waltz." A 16-year-old girl named Euphemia Allen wrote the song, which has nothing to do with Chinese eating utensils. The song was intended to be played by "chopping" at the keys with the pinky fingers of both hands.

• The pipe organ that we associate with circus clowns is actually called "Entrance of the Gladiators" and was written in 1897 by the Czech composer Julius Fucik.

• "Hava Nagila" started out as a wordless tune that was hummed by the Hasidim of Sadigora in what is now the Ukraine. At the turn of the 20th century, a Latvian cantor wrote lyrics to the tune, based on text found in Psalm 118:24.

• Werner Thomas is the man behind the infamous Chicken Dance. A Swiss accordionist and restauranteur, Thomas wrote a tune called "Der Ententanz" ("The Duck Dance") in his spare time after watching the ducks and geese that gathered outside his diner.

• The lyrics to "Happy Birthday to You" are copyrighted, and any public performance would require a royalty payment.
               

Calendar Information        

Happening This Week:

14-21

   Nursing Assistants Week
14-17

   US Open Golf Championship
   Duct Tape Days
17-23

   Universal Father's Week
   Meet A Mate Week
   Old Time Fiddlers Week

Today Is                                                                      

Eat Your Vegetables Day

Family Awareness Day

Father's Day

Husband Caregiver Day

Stewarts Root Beer Day

Watergate Day

World Day To Combat Desertification and Drought

Iceland: Independence Day (1944-from Denmark)  

Today’s Other Events                                                             

1500’s

1565 - Matsunaga Hisahide assassinates the 13th Ashikaga shogun, Ashikaga Yoshiteru

1579 - Francis Drake entered SF Bay

1600’s

1654: In a meeting between the Swedes and the Delaware in Tinicum (New Sweden, Pennsylvania). Delaware Chief Naaman praises the Swedes for their righteous treatment of the native inhabitants

1700’s

1773 - Cúcuta, Colombia is founded by Juana Rangel de Cuéllar

1800’s

1824 - Bureau of Indian Affairs established

1839 - In the Kingdom of Hawaii, Kamehameha III issues the Edict of toleration which gives Roman Catholics the freedom to worship in the Hawaiian Islands. The Hawaii Catholic Church and the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace is later established as a result

1864 - 640m long pontoon bridge over James River Virginia finished

1877 - Indian Wars: Battle of White Bird Canyon - the Nez Perce defeat the US Cavalry at White Bird Canyon in the Idaho Territory

1894 - 1st US poliomyelitis epidemic breaks out, Rutland, Vermont

1900’s

1919 - "Barney Google" cartoon strip, by Billy De Beck, premieres

1939 - Last public guillotining in France. Eugen Weidmann, a convicted murderer, is guillotined in Versailles outside the prison Saint-Pierre

1945 - Day of Unity in West Germany (National Day)

1950 - 1st kidney transplant (Chicago) 1953 - Riots in East Germany for reunification

1957 - Tuskegee boycott begins (Blacks boycotted city stores)

1967 - Barbra Streisand: A Happening in Central Park performed

1972 - Five White House plumbers apprehended after second burglary of Democratic Natl HQ, Watergate

1982 - Pres Reagan 1st UN Gen Assembly address ("evil empire" speech)

1986 - Chief Justice Warren Earl Burger resigns Antonin Scalia nominated

1991 - Pres Zachary Taylors body is exhumed to test how he died

2000’s

2008 - First day of legal same-sex marriage in California

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

Remembered for being born on this day

Ralph Bellamy, Chicago, actor (Air Mail, Dive Bomber, Trading Places) in 1904

Martin Bormann, propoganda minister (Hitler) in 1900

George Cormack, cereal inventor (Wheaties) in 1870

Red Foley, Blue Lick Ky, country singer (Mr Smith Goes to Washington) in 1910

John Robert Gregg, Ireland, inventor (shorthand) in 1867

Giovanni Paolo Pannini, Italian painter and architect in 1691

Igor F Stravinsky, Oranienbaum Russia, composer (Rite of Spring) in 1882

In their 60’s

George S. Clinton, American composer and musician is 65

Barry Manilow, New York City, American singer/pianist (Mandy, I Write the Songs) is 69

Joe Piscopo, comedian (SNL, Miller Lite commercials) is 61

In their 50’s

Colin Fox, national spokesperson of the Scottish Socialist Party is 53

In their 40’s

Dan Jansen, West Allis Wisc, speed skater (Oly-gold-1984, 88, 92) is 47

Greg Kinnear, actor/talk show host (Talk Soup, Sabrina, Later) is 49

Jason Patric, film, television and stage actor is 46

In their 30’s

Venus Williams, tennis star is 32  

Today’s Obits                                                           

Cyd Charisse, American dancer and actress dies in 2008 at 86

Jack Parsons, American rocket-fuel pioneer and renegade occultist dies in chemical explosion in 1952 at 37

Agha Muḥammad Khān Qājār, cruel ruler of Persia, castrated & killed in 1797 at 55

Kate Smith, singer (God Bless America), dies in 1986 at 78

Answers                                                                                                                                            

Brain Game: Close Up Picture

What is the answer?

Each can be proceeded by ‘BREAK’ to make a new word

NPR Sunday Puzzle

1.     Coat + s: Tosca

2.     Fats+ u : Faust

3.     Cream + n: Carmen

4.     Foiled + i: Fidelio

5.     Relate + k: Electra

6.     Rotunda + t: Turandot

7.     Fireside + g: Siegfried

8.     Dog handlers + i: (2 words) Das Rheingold

4X4 boxes

HAUL

ACRE

URGE

LEEK

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  ☺