Jan 29, 2013

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Flagstaff Almanac:  Week: 05/ Day: 29   

Today: H   34°…L 27° Averages: H  43° L 18° Records: H   63°(1986)…L -13°(1918)

Wind: ave:  13mph; Gusts:  32mph  ave. humidity:  91% Wind chill-subtract 20°

Quote of the Day:

Today’s Historical Highlights:

1st movie in Cinemascope (The Robe) premieres>1953

9th Winter Olympic games open in Innsbruck, Austria>1964

Custer Battlefield National Monument, Mont established>1879

Edgar Allen Poe's "Raven" 1st published>1845 

Galileo observes Neptune but fails to recognize what he sees>1613

Hurricane hits Washington & Oregon>1921

In his State of the Union Address, United States President George W. Bush describes "regimes that sponsor terror" as an Axis of Evil, in which he includes Iraq, Iran and North Korea>2002

Jimi Hendrix & Peter Townshend wage a battle of guitars>1969

Walt Disney's "Sleeping Beauty" released>1959

William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet is probably first performed>1595

♪  ♪   Happy Birthday To: ♪. ♪   

How many can you identify?…answers in Today’s Birthdays

Free Rambling Thoughts:   

Slowly recovering from Jet Lag after a great trip to Uganda. Pics and story later…leave it to say the gorillas, chimps, baboons and monkeys welcomed me to their homeland just like I was family. The elephants not so much. The roads were horrific most of the time…dirt, ruts, washboard for several all day drives never seeing pavement. Nice places to stay, two with electricity from 6a-10p only. One with shower where a man came, climbed up on the roof, poured in hot water to the tank, then climbed down and woke us up about 6am. Uganda is still trying to recover from Idi Amin’s 60+ year reign of terror, but are doing well…still don’t have the tourist thing down real well, but they sure try.

 

After all that time in 80°+ weather and 500% humidity, returning to rain in Flagstaff on Saturday was quite a surprise…after all it is January. Today was a couple of inches of snow…and I have been cold all day. Finally had to turn up the thermostat a couple of degrees. Tomorrow will be laundry day to get all my travel clothes wearable again. Those bad roads had a lot of red sand…just like the rez. After one long day two of us with white hair were surprised to see that we now had sandy red hair. One of those nights the shower was not strong enough to get rid of the red color, so I just wore by bandana the next day.

Game  Center: (answers at the end of post)

Hidden Word

Find a hidden word in the sentence

 He does this to avoid walking under it.

Lifestyle  Substance:     

Found on You Tube with some relevance to today:

Claudine Longet - Love Is Blue

sleeping beauty trailer  

Ok, then?

Read This Carefully!!

At a Tire Shop in Milwaukee : "Invite us to your next blowout."

 Harper’s Index:         

Chance an American child lives in a family headed by a single mother: 1 in 4Portion of new US jobs sine 2009 that have gone to men: 4/5

Unusual Fact of the Day:

The first bumper stickers appeared prior to World War II and usually promoted political candidates. At that time, they weren’t adhesive-backed; they were affixed to the car bumper with wire.

Joke-of-the-day:

Q. What do you call a polar bear with ear muffs? A. Anything you want, he can’t hear you!

Rules of Thumb:   

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess

KNOCKING AWAY A GUN

If an assailant is actually touching you with a handgun, you can knock it out of line before he or she can fire it.    

Yeah, It Really Happened

JUAN DE ACOSTA, Colombia - Colombian authorities said three men who burgled a convenience store were forced to abandon their loot when the getaway donkey alerted police with his braying. Police said the men stole the donkey, 10-year-old Xavi, and about 12 hours later attempted to have him carry away the merchandise they took from Fabio Orozco's convenience store in the town of Juan de Acosta, The Daily Telegraph reported Thursday. Investigators said police officers heard the donkey's "hee haws" around 2 a.m., and the thieves were forced to leave the animal and loot -- which included rum, oil, rice, tuna and sardines -- behind. Police recovered the donkey and stolen goods, but the thieves were able to escape on foot. The donkey was returned to owner Orlando Olivares, police said.  

Somewhat Useless Information   

• The word "taxicab" is an abbreviated version of its original name, taximeter cabriolet. The term was first used for horse-drawn carriages that charged for rides and later applied to automobiles employed for the same purpose. 

• Checker Motors, long the nation's leading manufacturer of taxis, was one of the very few automakers to really hold its own during the Great Depression. With fewer Americans able to afford their own cars, the option to call a cab for transportation became more important.

• Many sources rank the live audience's reaction to Rev. Jim Ignatowski's repeated utterance, "What does a yellow light mean?" on a 1979 episode of TV's Taxi as the longest sustained laugh in sitcom history.

• The use of the word "hack" to refer to a cab driver dates back to before the days of automobiles when a "hack" was a horse that one could rent.

• Although the term "practice squad" is more commonly used today, sports teams once relied on a "taxi squad" of players that filled in positions during practice or when a player went down due to an injury.

• The Harry Chapin hit single "Taxi" was banned from many radio stations, who frowned upon the fact that the song's lyrics told the story of a cabbie who liked "gettin' stoned."

Calendar Information        

Happening This Week:

27-2/2

World Leprosy Week

Catholic Schools Week

Meat Week

National Cowboy Poetry Gathering Week

National Medical Group Practice Week

International Hoof Care Week

US National Snow Sculpting Week

Today Is                                                                      

Curmudgeons Day

Freethinkers Day

National Cornchip Day

National Puzzle Day

Seeing Eye Dog Day-since 1929

Thomas Paine Day

US: Kansas becomes 34th state--1861 

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Today’s Events through History  

6 Iranian held US hostages escape with help of Canadians>1980

American League organized in Buffalo, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Indianapolis, 

     Kansas City, Milwaukee & Minneapolis>1900

Emile Grubbe is 1st dr to use radiation treatment for breast cancer>1896

Episcopal church appoints 1st female bishop>1989

Henry Clay introduces a comprise bill on slavery to US Senate>1850

Ice cream cone rolling machine patented by Carl Taylor>1924

John Gays' "Beggar's Opera," premieres in London>1728 

Pres Carter commuted Patricia Hearst's 7 year sentence to 2 years>1979

Pres Jackson orders 1st use of US troops to suppress a labor dispute>1834

USS Missouri the last battleship commissioned by the US Navy is launched>1944

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

In their 70’s

Claudine Longet, France, former Mrs Andy Williams/singer is 71

Katharine Ross, actress (Graduate, Francesca-Colbys) is 71

In their 60’s

Ann Jillian, Cambridge Mass, actress (Mr Mom, Jennifer Slept Here) is 63

Tom Selleck, actor (Lance-Rockford Files, Magnum PI) is 68

In their 50’s

Oprah Winfrey, actress/TV host (Color Purple, Oprah) is 59

In their 40’s

Edward Burns, director/actor (Brothers McMullen) is 45

Remembered for being born today

Edward Abbey, US author (Desert Solitaire) (1927-1989)

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, Tagarov Russia, playwright (Cherry Orchard) (1860-1904)

Paddy Chayevsky, [Sydney], US, dramatist (Marty, Hospital) (1923-1981)

John Forsythe, NJ, actor (Bachelor Father, Charlie's Angels, Dynasty) (1918-2010)

Victor Mature, Louisville KY, actor (1 Million BC, Samson & Delilah) (1913-1999)

William McKinley, Niles Ohio, 25th US President (1897-1901), (1843-1901)

Thomas Paine, political essayist (Common Sense, Age of Reason) (1737-1809)

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           

Jimmy Durante, comedian (Palooka, Jimmy Durante Show), 1980 at 86

Dick "Night Train" Lane, American football player 2002 at 74

Freddie Prinze, comedian/actor (Chico & the Man), shoots himself 1977 at 22

Answer: Hidden word

 He does this to avoid walkinG UNder it.

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  §