Mar 14, 2003

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Flagstaff Almanac:  Week: 11/ Day: 73   Today: H  63°…L 30°

Averages: H  50° L 23° Records: H   70°(2003)…L -9°(1962,1917)

Wind: ave: 8mph; Gusts:  9mph  Ave. humidity:  56%

Quote of the Day

Today’s Historical Highlights

1st national bird reservation established in Sebastian, FL►1903

California legislature approves act making Golden Gate Park possible►1870

Dallas jury sentences Jack Ruby to death in Lee Harvey Oswald murder►1964

Eli Whitney patents cotton gin►1794

FBI's "10 Most Wanted Fugitives" program begins►1950

Federal Register, 1st magazine of the US government, publishes 1st issue►1936

Gerry Adams, head of Sinn Féin, seriously wounded in an assassination attempt►1984

Gilbert & Sullivan's comic opera "Mikado," premieres in London►1885

John D Rockefeller gives $100 million to Rockefeller Foundation►1913

Nikita Khrushchev succeeds Malenkov as secretary Comm Party►1953

Pres Clinton trips & tears up his knee requiring surgery►1997

♪  ♪   Happy Birthday To: ♪. ♪   

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

Free Rambling Thoughts   

A great weather day. Nice to be able to be outside with no jacket. Our retirement group had our weekly lunch today as Mary is headed to her new home in Phoenix for the weekend. Such a nice place. And her pool is amazing. Cheryl is excited that her son took a test to work in Los Angeles. Of the 5000 who took the test, he came in 36^th. Pretty good for a kid from Tuba City.

 

So the white smoke came and the Roman Catholics have a new Pope, from South America. That alone is historic. And he is a Jesuit. History in the making. Mary was raised Catholic and we were talking about the conclave. In my youth, as in her youth, we both thought that it was a unanimous vote…that Catholic Cardinals, in the Sistine Chapel were told by God who the Pope would be and that everyone voted for him. Another myth comes to an end…it’s just a 2/3 vote. Politics reigns. Somehow it takes away the divine intervention of our youth. Watching the views from Argentina were amazing. And even his name, Pope Francis, brings change…the first Francis in the churches history.

Game  Center (answers at the end of post)

Brain Teasers

Using a combination of letters and/or numbers to sound out the answers, can you solve the clues? (The first one is free)

1. Not difficult - EZ (Easy) 2. Unoccupied 3. To do better than others  4. Defeated 5. A number (use only letters for this one) 6. A sport 7. Freezing

Lifestyle  Substance:     

Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

• The Mikado Overture

• Albert Einstein: How I See the World

• Myths and Superstitions-Marlin Perkins

from Cracked.com

Myths About Celebrity Deaths Everyone Believes

Charles Darwin Didn't Recant on His DeathbedWalt Disney's Head Is Not FrozenMozart Was Not Buried in a Pauper's Grave Oscar Wilde Did Not Die of SyphilisEdgar Allan Poe Did Not Die of Alcoholism

Ok, then?

• Harper’s Index    

• Amount set aside for states to aid homeowners in a 2012 government settlement with mortgage lenders $2,500,000,000

• Portion of that amount that the states plan to use for other purposes: 2/5

Picture of the Day: Mammals of the Sea

Unusual Fact of the Day

The 50 tallest mountains on Earth are all located in Asia

Joke-of-the-day

A man went into a dentist and said "how much will it cost to have teeth taken out" "$90" said the dentist "that’s ridiculous" said the man.” I could lose the anesthetic and it would cost $60" "that’s still to expensive,” said the man "if I don't use any anesthesia I could knock the price down to $20". Still to much" said the man.” Well one of my students can do it for $10" said the dentist "perfect" said the man "book my wife for next Tuesday".  

Rules of Thumb:   

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess

PLANNING A TELEVISION AD

The visual part of a TV commercial accounts for 85 percent of the impact on the viewer; the sound track accounts for 15 percent.    

Yeah, It Really Happened

ST. PAUL, Minn. - A Minnesota man said he makes his daily 18-mile commute year-round on an unusual vehicle -- a unicycle. Bob Clark, 51, said he travels to his office in downtown St. Paul every day on a unicycle, regardless of the weather, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported Monday. "It's not as hard as most people think it is," Clark said. "Anyone who can ride a bike can ride a unicycle, with a little practice. It's a mind-body thing that happens automatically." Clark said he owns four unicycles and averages about 10 mph in the winter and 12 mph in the summer. He said riding his unicycle in public gets him a lot of attention. "The comments are 99 percent positive," he said. "Lots of people stick their cellphones out the car window to take a picture." However, he does have to deal with the remaining 1 percent. "I had a firecracker thrown at me once," Clark said. "Most people," he said, "just ask where the other wheel is."  

Somewhat Useless Information   

• Benjamin Franklin wasn't only the discoverer of electricity, he was also the inventor of Daylight Savings Time. In 1874, Franklin was the U.S. ambassador to Paris, and he wrote a letter suggesting that "the sun gives light as soon as it rises" and that Parisians were wasteful with their night-owl habits.

• Daylight Savings Time officially began in 1916 when the Germans, in the middle of World War I, realized that they could save energy by switching the clocks. England's Parliament had rejected such a measure since 1909, but followed the Germans a month later. In the United States, DST began in 1918, when the US entered the war, but it was repealed once the war ended.

• The United States instituted DST again during World War II, one month after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. When the war ended, it was again repealed, although some states and cities chose to maintain the time change. This resulted in utter chaos as neighboring districts were followed different times. Suburbs could be in different time zones than the cities they surrounded.

• The Uniform Time Act of 1966 normalized the time change across the country. It decreed that states did not have to comply with the time change, but that if they did, the entire state must comply; cities and towns could not make the decision individually. The federal government chose which would be the "spring forward" and the "fall back" days.

• Congress has changed the hours of DST three times since 1966; once in 1970, during the energy crisis; once in 1980, when it began to encompass April; and finally in 2007.

• In addition to saving energy, Daylight Savings time means fewer cars on the road in the dark during winter, and more after-work daylight for people who work. Russia found, however, that DST in midwinter means the sun rising at 10:00 AM in Moscow, and 11:00 in St. Petersburg.

Calendar Information        

Happening This Week:

8-14 

Universal Women's Week
10-16 

Girl Scout Week
National Agriculture Week
Teen Tech Week
Turkey Vultures Return to the Living Sign
Flood Safety Awareness Week
International Brain Awareness Week

Today Is                                                                      

International Ask A Question Day

Potato Chip Day

Pi Day (as in the math pie = 3.14159265 etc.)

World Kidney Day

~UK: Commonwealth Day

Today’s Events through History  

1st American town meeting (Boston's Faneuil Hall) ►1743

1st time 13 people in space►1995

Cedar Revolution, where over one and a million Lebanese went into 

     the streets of Beirut►2005

Columbus writes a letter describing the generous nature of the Indians

     he has encountered►1493

England granted a royal charter to Massachusetts Bay Colony►1629

England grants patent for Providence Plantations (now Rhode Island) ►1644

Mikhail S Gorbachev becomes president of the Soviet Congress►1990

Scotland dismisses Willem III & Mary Stuart as king & queen►1689

Soviet newspaper "Pravda" suspends publication►1992

Thirty Years' War: Bavaria, Cologne, France and Sweden sign the Truce of Ulm►1647

US currency goes on gold standard►1900

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

In their 80’s

Frank Borman, Gary Ind, astronaut (Gem 7, Ap 8)/CEO (Eastern Airline) is 84

Michael Caine, [Maurice J Micklewhite], London, actor (Alfie) is 80

Quincy Jones Jr, Chicago Ill, composer/singer (We Are The World) is 80

In their 60’s

Billy Crystal, Long Beach NY, comedian (Soap, Saturday Night Live, City Slickers) is 65

Remembered for being born today

Les Brown, American bandleader [1912-2001]

Albert Einstein, German-born theoretical physicist Nobel laureate (relativity) [1879-1955]

Adolph Gottlieb American painter [1903-1974]

 [John] Casey Jones, RR engineer (Ballad of Casey Jones) [1863-1900]

Hank Ketcham, cartoonist (Dennis the Menace) [1920-2001]

Max Shulman, novelist (Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, Tender Trap) [1919-1988]

Johann Strauss, the Elder, Viennese violinist and composer (Radetzky March) [1804-1899]

Lucy Hobbs Taylor, 1st US woman dentist [1833-1910]

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           

Edward Abbey (environmental author)-after surgery-1989-at 62

George Eastman, US industrialist (Kodak-camera)-suicide-1932-at 77

Peter Graves [Aurness], American-2010-at 83

Susan Hayward, actress (Young & Willing)-brain cancer-1975-at 56

Karl Marx, German philosopher (Communist Manifesto)- pleurisy-1883-at 64

Marlin Perkins, TV host (Wild Kingdom)-1986-at 81

Answer: Brain Teasers

2. MT (Empty)
3. XL (Excel)
4. B10 (Beaten)
5. AT (Eighty)
6. 10S (Tennis)
7. IC (Icy)

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  §