Mar 5, 2013

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Flagstaff Almanac:  Week: 10/ Day: 64   

Today: H   53°…L 36° Averages: H  48° L 22° Records: H   68°(1910)…L -16°(1966)

Wind: ave:   10mph; Gusts:  18mph  Ave. humidity:  47%

Quote of the Day

Today’s Historical Highlights

"King Kong," 1st televised►1956 1,000 US marines land in China to protect 

     American property►1927

1st old age pension plans in US established by Montana & Nevada►1923

Phoenix offers a $200 bounty for dead Indians►1891

Congress appropriates $30,000 to ship camels to western US►1845

Elvis Presley ends 2-year hitch in US Army►1960

FDR proclaims 10-day bank holiday►1933

Graves of czar Nicholas & family found in St Petersburg►1995

Italian forces are the first to use airships for military purposes►1912

Largest milkshake (1,955 gallons of chocolate-Nelspruit South Africa) ►1994

Mother-in-law's day 1st celebrated (Amarillo, Tx) ►1934

Mexico attacks Alamo►1836

Russian spacecraft Venera 14 lands on Venus sends back data►1982

SDS Weathermen terrorist group bomb 18 West 11th St in NYC►1970

Winston Churchill's "Iron Curtain" speech►1946

♪  ♪   Happy Birthday To: ♪. ♪   

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

Free Rambling Thoughts   

Quite a busy day for me here in Flagstaff…and for a Monday, I can’t imagine what the rest of the week will bring. It started off with a great lunch and conversation with a former colleague. John is doing well, keeping busy with several part time jobs and watching the grandkids grow. Good to see him and hearing about his adventures in retirement. Then a call to the State of Colorado. My friend Margaret is at her wits end….as am I. Turns out, the State of Colorado has 2 checks for me, that I didn’t deserve…and the ‘interest’ on those checks plus the checks explain the bill they sent me. So after talking to some other bureaucrat, the checks had not been mailed to me. Since I didn’t claim the checks they didn’t send to my address, they sent them to…ready…to the State of AZ unclaimed property. Somehow they knew I lived in AZ but didn’t know my address that was on the friggin Income Tax form. So I called AZ and they could only tell me they were holding ‘unclaimed property’ and couldn’t tell me how much or what is was until I filled out the necessary paperwork. I did get the bureaucrat to say that my guess that they were State of Colorado refund checks was a ‘good guess.’ He could email me or snail me the forms. I opted for snail mail so I would at least have a postmark to work with. Dear Margaret said that she would erase the penalty charges and that I could just pay the amount of the two checks. To end my day I got a call from Bob, my neighbor from CO and my roommate on my upcoming cruise. He is doing fine. We are both looking forward to our trip. He too had a CO Dept of Revenue story, much like mine, that took him a year and two visits to downtown Denver and at least 10 mailings the same forms to the office. Glad to hear it wasn’t just me. We also may be going to Cuba as roommates when that trip comes up. His kids and grandkids are doing great. His granddaughter is expecting her first child, his grandson is still teaching ESL in China and loving it. So nice to hear from such a good neighbor and friend.

Game  Center (answers at the end of post)

Brain Teasers

How can you drop a raw egg onto a concrete floor without cracking it?

Lifestyle  Substance:     

Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

• Britain Through the Lens - Rex Harrison

• Andy Gibb - I Just Want To Be Your Everything (Live 1977)
 

Ok, then?

Getting old-er

I was performing rounds at the hospital one morning and while checking up on a man I asked . . . ' So how's your breakfast this morning? '

'It's very good except for the Kentucky Jelly. I can't seem to get used to the taste,' Bob replied.

I then asked to see the jelly and Bob produced A foil packet labeled ' KY Jelly. 'Submitted by Dr. Leonard Kransdorf ,Detroit

Picture of the Day: Mountains of the world

Harper’s Index         

• Percentage increase since 2008 in the protion o Americans who call themselves ‘lower class’: 28

• In the portion earning more that $100,000 who do: 20

Unusual Fact of the Day

There is actually a specific area of the brain known as the bilateral vomitation center. It notes when our tummy is upset and makes the final decision whether to barf or not to barf.

Ancient Things

Vampires & Vikings: The ancient origins of “True Blood’s” more interesting residents

In Ancient Greece’s complex poetic traditions, Maenads were consorts of Dionysus. Son of Zeus, Dionysus was the Greek god of wine, ecstasy and liberation from one’s every daily consciousness. As followers of Dionysis, Maenads played loud music and took part in ecstatic dances and orgies. They dressed in thin flowing robes, panther skins, and wore wreathes of ivy or even snakes on their heads.  

Joke-of-the-day

A monastery decided to start a fish and chips store. When the store opened, a client comes in, and asks one of the clerics: are you the fish fryer?

Oh, no, the cleric answers, I'm the chip monk!

Rules of Thumb:   

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess

WRITING A SCREENPLAY

One page of an average screenplay equals about one minute of screen time. Therefore, the script for a typical feature film should be about a hundred pages long. In fact, many studios and producers won't look at screenplays much longer than a hundred pages.   

Yeah, It Really Happened

SPARTANBURG, S.C. - A thief in South Carolina's Spartanburg County allegedly stole nearly $19,000 worth of Girl Scout cookies from a storage facility, police said. An incident report filed this week said the thief made off with 450 cases of Girl Scout cookies -- worth an estimated $18,900 -- from Carey Moving and Storage, Inc., WSPA-TV, Spartanburg, S.C., reported Wednesday.

The cases contained about 5,400 boxes of cookies. Brian Carey, the owner of the storage company, said surveillance footage from the facility has been handed over to investigators, adding that his company performs strict drug and background checks and if it turns out that one of his employees was involved in the theft, such behavior won't be tolerated. Carey also he would order more cookies to help reimburse the Girl Scouts for the loss. A spokeswoman for the Girl Scouts of South Carolina said the cookies would have been sold at cookie booths across the 22 counties throughout the state. Proceeds from the cookie sales would have gone to help local scouts plan trips and organize community events.

Somewhat Useless Information   

• Humans can see less than 1 percent of the electromagnetic spectrum and hear less than 1 percent of the acoustic spectrum.

• The existence of the rainbow depends on the conical photoreceptors in your eyes. To animals without cones the rainbow does not exist. So you don't just look at a rainbow, you create it.

Calendar Information        

Happening This Week:

1-7

National Cheerleading Week:
National Ghostwriters Week
National Write A Letter of Appreciation Week
Universal Human Beings Week
2-5

American Council on Education:
2-19

Iditarod Race
3-9 

Severe Weather Preparedness Week
Celebrate Your Name Week
National Consumer Protection Week
National Procrastination Week
National Schools Social Work Week
National Sleep Awareness Week
National Words Matter Week
Professional Pet Sitters Week
Save Your Vision Week
Telecommunicator Appreciation Week
Read an E-Book Week
Return The Borrowed Books Week
Women in Construction Week
Newspaper in Education Week
National School Breakfast Week
Share A Story - Shape A Future Week

Today Is                                                                      

Crispus Attucks Day 

     Boston Massacre, British troops kill 5 in crowd. Crispus Attackus 

     becomes 1st black to die for American freedom 1770

Peace Corp Day

Unique Names Day

~Brazil:  ~French West Indies: ~Malta: Carnival

Today’s Events through History  

1st American temperance law enacted, Virginia►1623

1st US religious journal, The Christian History, published, Boston►1743

English king Henry VII hires John Cabot (Giovanni Caboto) to explore►1496

Ethic committee votes to reveal congressmen who bounced checks►1992

Georgia becomes 1st state to regulate railroads►1856

Haifa: 17 Israeli civilians are killed by a Hamas suicide bomb in the 

     Haifa bus 37 massacre►2003

Mecca: 35 Muslim pilgrims are crushed to death during the annual Hajj pilgrimage►2001

Mexican authorities find the body of US drug agent Enrique "Kike" Camarena Salaazar►1985

Nikola Tesla describes the process of the ball lightning formation►1904

Samuel Colt manufactures 1st pistol, 34-caliber "Texas" model►1836

Smoking tobacco introduced in Europe by Francisco Fernandes►1558

Stapler patented in England by C H Gould►1868

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

In their 70’s

Dean Stockwell, actor (Werewolf of Washington, Blue Velvet) is 77

James Sikking, actor (Hill St Blues, Star Trek 3, Doogie Howser) is 79

In their 50’s

Penn Jillette, magician (Penn & Teller-Penn & Teller are Dead) is 58

Marsha Warfield, comedian/actress (Roz-Night Court) is 59

Remembered for being born today

David II Bruce, King of Scots [1324-1371]

Jack Cassidy, Richmond Hill VA, actor (Oscar/Jetman-He & She) [1927-1976]

Emmett J Culligan, founder of water treatment organization [1893-1970]

Zhou Enlai, Premier of the People's Republic of China [1898-1976]

Andy Gibb, Manchester England, singer/TV host (Solid Gold) [1958-1988]

Rex Harrison, England, actor (My Fair Lady, Dr Doolittle) [1908-1990]

Gerardus Mercator, map maker [1512-1594]

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           

John Belushi, comedian (Sat Night Live)-drug overdose-1982-at 33

Patsy Cline, country singer (Crazy)-plane crash-1963-at 30

Billy DeWolfe, actor (Good Morning World)- lung cancer-1974-at 67

Richard Kiley, American actor- bone marrow disease-1999-at 76

Joseph Stalin, Premier of the Soviet Union (1941-53)-stroke-1953-at 73

Henry Wharton, English writer-1695-at 31

Answer: Brain Teasers

Concrete floors are very hard to crack!

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  §