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Flagstaff Almanac: Week: 52/ Day: 364
Today: H 32°…L -3°
Averages: H 42° L 16° Records: H 61°(1980)…L -12°(1966)
Wind: ave: 8mph; Gusts: 9mph ave. humidity: 89%
Quote of the Day:
Today’s Historical Highlights:
11
killed, 75 hurt by terrorist bomb at LaGuardia Airport—1975
1st
nautical almanac in US published by Samuel Stearns, Boston—1782
2nd Irish
constitution goes into effect; Irish Free State renamed Erie—1937
Assassination
inside Canterbury Cathedral of Thomas Becket—1170
Bob
Marley postage stamp issued in Jamaica—1982
Bowling
ball invented—1862
British
burn Buffalo, NY during War of 1812—1813
Coach Paul
"Bear" Bryant ends his career with Alabama (323 wins) —1982
Edison
patents "transmission of signals electrically" (radio) —1891
Emma
Snodgrass arrested in Boston for wearing pants—1852
Gas
lights 1st installed at White House (Polk's administration) —1848
Hong Kong
begins slaughtering all its chickens to prevent bird flu—1997
Life
magazine ceases publication—1972
Mongolia
gains independence from the Qing dynasty—1911
SF
Symphony formed—1911
Star
Trek's "Trouble With Tribbles" 1st airs—1967
Sun Yat-sen
becomes the first President of the Republic of China—1911
Treaty of
New Echota is signed, ceding all the lands of the Cherokee east
of the
Mississippi River to US—1835
Wayne
Gretzky & Martina Navratilova, named athletes of decade by AP—1989
Wounded
Knee Battle or Massacre (depending on which version you read) —1890
♪
♪ Happy Birthday To: ♪. ♪
How many can you identify?…answers in Today’s Birthdays
Free Rambling Thoughts:
I had a great Christmas in Chicago. The family
in-laws are so kind and nice to me. Lots of great people, even better food than
last year, Christmas Chaos with little ones…and big ones too. We had three
separate gift sharing events…two on Christmas Eve and one on Christmas Day.
Must say they have an interesting White Elephant gift exchange where you pick a
gift from the pile and you can open it or steal one that is already open. Then
when all the gifts are open, you have another round of stealing. For the real
gift exchange, you can only steal once. A lot of fun, lots of laughs, and
everyone had a great time.
My trip was fairly uneventful with an hour
delay in Minneapolis on the way. One the way back we got to Phoenix about 45
minutes early. The drive to Flag was also uneventful but the driver warned us
we might have problems with snow. Luckily, we came in on time, between two
storms. On the drive home from the shuttle drop off, it was snowing real hard,
but stopped about an hour later. Then there is my brother’s trip…they were
flying from Chicago to Houston, to Merida on United. The plane was about 30
minutes late leaving Chicago and landed in Houston. Some idiot left his seat on
the approach to move to the front of the plane to ‘make his connection’. He was
told to return to his seat. So he did, then he got up again while the plane was
on the tarmac. He was told he would be greeted by the local cops when they got
to their gate. They had to wait about 15 minutes for the cops to arrive. That
guy was carted off and Richard and Laura got off the plane and walked to the
next gate…which was right beside the gate they were in. The plane to Merida had
left 4 minutes earlier. It’s a one flight a day deal. Why the idiots on the
ground didn’t hold the plane will never be known…strange since it is also a
United Flight and surely everyone knew why the plane was late. They did get a
flight for the morning to Cancun and then rented a car for a 4 hour drive…getting
to Merida about 3 hours earlier than they would have on the plane. To top off
the great travel adventure, upon landing in Cancun, they couldn’t find Laura’s
one checked bag. So they left and it will be delivered sometime. They are at
their hacienda until the 8th so things should work out. On a sad
note, their 19 year old cat, who had been sick for a couple of months, had to
be put down on Wednesday. Hard on both of them, especially since they couldn’t
be there with Mr. Snaps at the end.
Game
Center: (answers at the end of post)
Hidden Countries
Find two countries in the sentence
Vladimir and Olga are Soviet names.
Lifestyle
Substance:
Ok, then?
Read This Headline Carefully!!
A
sign posted in Germany's Black Forest:
IT IS STRICTLY FORBIDDEN ON OUR BLACK FOREST CAMPING SITE, THAT PEOPLE OF DIFFERENT SEX, OR INSTANCE, MEN AND WOMEN, LIVE TOGETHER IN ONE TENT, UNLESS THEY ARE MARRIED WITH EACH OTHER FOR THIS PURPOSE.
Countdown to 2013 begins:
Bet You Didn’t Know…from History Channel
The Greek Dark Ages, which lasted from 1200 to 800 B.C., saw the collapse of cities and towns, a return to small-scale farming and animal herding, and the disappearance of writing for more than 400 years.
Harper’s Index:
Percentage of Americans who viewed college as a good financial investment in 2008: 81
Percentage in 2012: 57
Unusual Fact of the Day:
President Grover Cleveland's first name is Stephen. Grover is his middle name.Found on You Tube:
Joke-of-the-day:
Q: How come legacy programmers get Halloween and Christmas confused? A: Because Oct 31 = Dec 25 (Octal 31 = Decimal 25)
Rules of Thumb:
Easy
shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess
COUNTING YOUR
VOLUNTEERS
Any volunteer organization is alive and well if at least 35 percent of its members volunteer consistently.
Yeah, It Really Happened
FORT
DODGE, Iowa - An Iowa woman fired for being "irresistible" to her
boss says a court decision against her was unfair. Melissa Nelson told CNN,
"The last couple of days have just been an emotional roller coaster. I'm
trying to stay strong. It's tough. I don't think it's fair. I don't think its
right." An Iowa Supreme Court judge said the allegations do not amount to
sex discrimination. Dentist James Knight, whose business is in Fort Dodge,
fired dental assistant Nelson, an employee of 10 years, because she presented
too much of a distraction and jeopardized his relationship with his wife, CNN
reported Sunday. The Supreme Court affirmed a lower court's ruling that the
employment termination did not amount to sex discrimination under the state's
civil rights act. Knight's wife discovered in 2009 that Knight and Nelson were
sending text messages to each other and demanded her husband fire Nelson, which
he did in 2010, CNN reported. Knight told Nelson near the end of her employment
that her clothing was "distracting," but Nelson said she wore scrubs
at work, CNN reported. The court's decision said Knight told Nelson "if
she saw his pants bulging, she would know her clothing was too revealing,"
and that Knight said in reply to Nelson's alleged comment about her infrequent
sex life, "That's like having a Lamborghini in the garage and never
driving it." In siding with Knight, Iowa Supreme Court Justice Edward M.
Mansfield wrote on behalf of the court, "The issue before us is not
whether a jury could find that Dr. Knight treated Nelson badly. We are asked to
decide only if a genuine fact issue exists as to whether Dr. Knight engaged in
unlawful gender discrimination when he fired Nelson at the request of his
wife."
Somewhat Useless Information
- A rubber band in some regions is known as a binder, elastic or lacker band or gumband in Australia.
- Synthetic Rubber - About 3/4's of the world rubber come from crude oil.
- Chicle, widely used as a base for chewing gum, is another latex product.
- Latex is the sap of various plants, mostly from the rubber tree. If you expose the sap to the air it hardens and become 'rubbery'. Over the year various cultures learned that if you add certain other juices and saps to the mass it becomes more elastic and lasts longer.
- Latex is used in many types of clothing. It is different from rubber in that it is less refined and often thinner. Worn on the body (or applied directly by painting) it tends to be skin-tight, producing a "second skin" effect. It has a shinier finish than rubber.
- A story says that the first European to return to Portugal from Brazil with samples of such water-repellent rubberized cloth so shocked people that he was brought to court on the charge of witchcraft.
Calendar Information
Happening This Week:
25-31> It's About Time Week
Today Is
Tick Tock Day
Pepper Pot Day
Saint Thomas [Becket] of Canterbury Feast Day
US: Texas: Admission Day (1845—28th state)
Today’s Events through History
1st
American Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) chapter opened in Boston—1851
CBS
purchases NFL TV rights for 1966-68 at $18.8 million per year—1965
English
troops occupy Savannah, Georgia—1778
Fred P
Newton completes longest swim ever (1826 miles), when he swam
in the
Mississippi River -Ford Dam, Minn, to New Orleans—1930
Germany
begins dropping incendiary bombs on London (WW II) —1940
Leaders
of the Khmer Rouge apologize for the 1970s genocide in Cambodia
that claimed
over 1 million—1998
Patent
granted for a 4-wheel automobile brake—1908
Ship
carrying Jewish immigrants driven away from Palestine—1947
Steam-powered
threshing machine patented, Winthrop, Maine—1837
US State
Dept announces work on placing objects into Earth orbit (Elmsford
NY) —1948
Today’s Birthdays
In their 80’s
Inga
Swenson, Omaha Nebraska, actress (Gretchen-Benson) is 80
In their 70’s
Mary
Tyler Moore, actress (Mary Tyler Moore, Ordinary People) is 76
Ray
Thomas, England, rock vocalist (Moody Blues-Nights in White Satin) is 71
Jon
Voight, actor (Deliverance, Midnight Cowboy) is 74
In their 60’s
Ted
Danson, actor (Cheers) will be 65
Marianne
Faithfull, Hampstead England, vocalist (Money) is 66
In their 50’s
Paula
Poundstone, comedienne (Emmy Awards)is 53
In their 40’s
Jude Law,
actor, film producer and director is 40
Remembered for being born today
Archibald
Alison, Scottish historian (History of Europe) (1792-1867)
Tom
Bradley, (Mayor-D-LA) (1917-1998)
Pablo
Casals, Vendrell Catalonia Spain, violinist/conductor/composer (1876-1973)
Ed
Flanders, Minneapolis Mn, actor (Dr Westphall-St Elsewhere) (1934-suicide-1995)
Charles
Goodyear, inventor (vulcanization process for rubber), (1808-1860)
Andrew
Johnson, Raleigh NC, (Unionist), 17th pres (1808-1875)
Madame de
Pompadour, mistress of French King Louis XV (1721-TB-1764)
Today’s Historical Obits
Julius
Axelrod, biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine—2004—at
92
Roy
Engle, actor (Police Chief-My Favorite Martian)—1980—at 67
Big Foot
(Unpan Glešká), Lakota Indian
chief—at Wounded Knee—1890—at 64
Tim
Hardin, US singer (Bird on a Wire)—drug overdose—1980—at 39
Answer: Hidden Countries
Vladimir and Olga are Soviet names.
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 §
