Feb 27, 2013

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Flagstaff Almanac:  Week: 09/ Day: 58   

Today: H   38°…L 20° Averages: H  47° L 21° Records: H   71°(1986)…L -7°(1977)

Wind: ave:   9mph; Gusts:  25mph  Ave. humidity:  46%

Quote of the Day:

Today’s Historical Highlights:

"People" magazine begins sales—1974

17th Winter Olympic games closes in Lillehammer, Norway—1994

1st Mardi Gras celebration in New Orleans—1827

22nd amendment ratified, limiting president to 2 terms—1951

2nd Sunday in a row golfers in SC arrested for violating Sabbath—1927

American Indian Movement occupy Wounded Knee in South Dakota—1973

Baseball 1st played in England, at Lord's Cricket Grounds—1874

Carl Lewis jumps world record indoor (8,675 m) —1984

Exxon Corp & Exxon Shipping are indicted on 5 criminal counts (Valdez) —1990

Female suffrage in Egypt—1956

Greatest passenger load on a commercial airliner-610 on Boeing 747—1981

Supreme Court unanimously upheld 19th amend woman's right to vote—1922

♪  ♪   Happy Birthday To: ♪. ♪   

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

Free Rambling Thoughts:   

Tuesday brought two interesting pieces of mail for the formerly wonderful state of Colorado. The first on stated that in 2006 I had received a refund and cashed the check, and in 2008 they had tried to mail me a check and it was returned. Hmmm. Letter two state that I still owe the state of Colorado $94 from my 2006 and 2008 taxes. Crazy. So I called the tax guy and took the papers to him. This is his busy time and after reviewing the letters, shaking his head, and saying ‘idiots’, he said to just pay the $94 and he would write me a check for that amount. I’ll call them tomorrow and find out why I owe the taxes and then write the check if necessary. If it is for taxes and not penalties I won’t make my accountant pay. I hate to give in on a principle…I didn’t earn any money in CO that owed taxes and I shouldn’t have to pay. There was some interest, less than $500 from some of my mother’s accounts, but that total income should cost $94. I have kept a bank account and savings account in CO that were my mother’s and reverted to me, so I guess I will close those and end my affiliation with any business in CO. Such a strange and stupid mess. 

Another piece of mail today was a shock..a Christmas/Valentine card with a Christmas/Valentine card from some friends in CO. No it wasn’t mailed late; they just got around to sending the Christmas letter and added Valentine. Good to hear from them anyway.

 

All this silliness in DC and Hagel is confirmed 58-41. Enough of these silly games.

Game  Center: (answers at the end of post)

Brain Teasers

Handel has been killed and Beethoven is on the case. He has interviewed the four suspects and their statements are shown below. Each suspect has said two sentences. One sentence of each suspect is a lie and one sentence is the truth. Help Beethoven figure out who the killer is.

Joplin: I did not kill Handel. Either Grieg is the killer or none of us is. Grieg: I did not kill Handel. Gershwin is the killer. Strauss: I did not kill Handel. Grieg is lying when he says Gershwin is the killer. Gershwin: I did not kill Handel. If Joplin did not kill him, then Grieg did.

Lifestyle  Substance:     

Found on You Tube with some relevance to today:

• Student Unrest at SF State College and S.I. Hayakawa

• Frankie Lymon "Little Bitty Pretty One"

Ok, then?

Read This Carefully!!

17 Remain Dead in Morgue Shooting Spree

Picture of the Day: Deserts of the world

Harper’s Index:         

Portion of the National Institute of Health’s research-chimp population going into retirement in the next year: 1/5

Unusual Fact of the Day:

The world's largest desert is not the Sahara; it is the continent of Antarctica. (Antarctica is classified as a "cold desert.")

Ancient Things:

Ancient Mexico: The Aztecs, Toltecs, Mayans, Olmecs, and the other people of Mesoamerica developed the first great city states of North America in ancient times. Click here for more

Joke-of-the-day:

The driving instructor was giving lessons to an extremely nervous student who panicked whenever another car approached on a particular two-lane road. One day, however, they got to the same stretch of road; and the student remained completely calm.

“This time you’re doing fine!” exclaimed the instructor.

“Yes,” the novice driver agreed. Now when I see another car coming, I shut my eyes.”

Rules of Thumb:   

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess

PLAYING SCRABBLE

As a rule, I can beat anyone at Scrabble who does crossword puzzles better than me.    

Yeah, It Really Happened

A Florida man and gun owner named JJ Sandy had a friend, Aalaya Walker, visiting him at his home in St. Petersburg and late one night Aalaya thought it would be a good idea to heat up the stove and make some waffles. And who hasn't had a late night snack attack before?

The problem is that Aalaya didn't realize how stupid her friend Sandy is.

It seems Sandy had stored a loaded magazine from his .45-caliber Glock pistol in the oven, because what makes a better ammunition dump than an oven?

Believe it or not, the bullets started exploding, spraying casing fragments at high speed and striking Aalaya.

Sandy told police he'd stored the gun in a drawer but had stored the magazine in the oven. Four rounds were in the 13-capacity magazine, he said.

Gun and ammunition references indicate that the .45-caliber bullets commonly used in Glocks can explode at temperatures as low as 280 degrees.

Sandy wasn't charged because he had a proper concealed weapons permit, which just goes to show how stupid a person can be and still get a concealed weapons permit.  

Somewhat Useless Information   

• The Bible was written by about 40 men over a period of about 1600 years dating from 1500 BC to about 100 years after Christ.

• The Church of Scientology was founded in 1953, at Washington DC, by US science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard.

• The first translation of the English Bible was initiated by John Wycliffe and completed by John Purvey in 1388.

• The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, named in the Bible's Book of Revelation, are Conquest, Slaughter, Famine, and Death.

• The Hindu holy day begins at sunrise, the Jewish holy day begins at sunset, and the Christian holy day begins at midnight.

• The longest name in the Bible Mahershalalhashbaz (Isaiah 8:1).

• The patron saint of dentists is St. Apollonia. She reportedly had her teeth pulled out in 249 AD by an anti-Christian mob.

Calendar Information        

Happening This Week:

24-3/2
National Secondhand Wardrobe Week
Telecommuter Appreciation Week 
Telecommuter Appreciation Week
Peace Corps Week

Today Is                                                                      

Inconvenience Yourself Day

International Polar Bear Day

~Dominican Republic Independence Day (1844 from Haiti)

Today’s Events through History  

1st federal vaccination legislation enacted—1813

Bonnie Blair (US) wins Olympic 500m speed skating in record 39.1—1988

Charlotte Ray, 1st Black woman lawyer, graduated Howard University—1872

Commerce Sec Herbert Hoover convenes 1st National Radio Conference—1922

Constantine Fahlberg discovers saccharin (artificial sweetener) —1879

Dan Issel (NBA-Nuggets), hits on 63rd consecutive free throw—1982

Fearing an English take over of the Mississippi Valley, Frenchman Pierre le Moyne,

     Sieur d'Iberville is granted permission to establish a series of forts along the

     lower Mississippi River—1669

Jews expelled from Austria by order of Leopold I—1670

NY Times (falsely) reports US army has ended domestic surveillance—1970

Pacific Island of New Britain discovered—1700

Supreme Court outlaws sit-down strikes—1939

US Congress authorizes 1st stamped newspaper wrappers for mailing—1861

US led allied 6 week war with Iraq ends—1991

Wikileaks begins disclosing 5 million emails from private intelligence company Stratfor—2012

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

In their 80’s

Ariel Sharon, former Prime Minister of Israel is 86

Joanne Woodward, Thomasville Ga, actress (3 Faces of Eve, Rachel) is 83

In their 70’s

Barbara Babcock, actr (Dr Quinn, Dallas, Hill St Blues) is 76

Howard Hesseman, actor (Dr Johnny Fever-WKRP, Head of Class) is 73

Ralph Nader, Winsted Conn, consumer advocate (Unsafe at Any Speed) is 79

Roger M Mahoney, Hollywood Ca, archbishop of Los Angeles is 77

Van Williams, actor (Green Hornet, Tycoon) is 79

In their 30’s

Josh Groban, singer, songwriter, musician, actor, and record producer is 32

Remembered for being born today

Hugo L Black, Ala, (Sen-D-Ala)/78th Supreme Court justice (1886-1971)

John Connally, (Gov-D/R-Texas) (1917-1993)

Mary Frann, actress (Joanna-Newhart, Days of Our Live) (1943-1988)

Thomas Hazlehurst, English soap and alkali manufacturer (1779-1842)

John Steinbeck, author (Grapes of Wrath-Nobel 1962) (1902-1968)

Elizabeth Taylor, actress (Father of the Bride, Butterfield 8, Cleopatra) (1932- 2011)

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Portland Maine, poet (Hiawatha) (1807-1882)

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           

Pat Brady, actor (Roy Rodgers Show)—1972—at 57

William F. Buckley, Jr., American conservative author and commentator—2008—at 82

Lillian Gish, US actress (Birth of a Nation)—1993—at 99

S I Hayakawa, (Sen-California, 1977-83)—1992—at 85

Frankie Lymon, rock and roll/rhythm and blues singer— heroin overdose—1968—at 25

J Pat O'Malley, actor (My Favorite Martian, Maude)—1985—at 80

Fred Rogers, American children's television actor—stomach cancer—2003—at 74

Louis Vuitton, French luggage maker—1892—at 71

Answer: Brain Teasers

Strauss is the one who killed Handel. 

You need to take turns assuming someone is the killer; that means everyone's second sentence is a lie. If Joplin was the killer, Grieg's lie mixed with Strauss' counteracts the other. If Grieg was the killer, Gershwin would need to be a killer too. If Gershwin was the killer, Grieg and Strauss counter each other again, but with Strauss, everything would fit.

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  §