Mar 6, 2013

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Flagstaff Almanac:  Week: 10/ Day: 65   

Today: H   52°…L 20° Averages: H  48° L 22° Records: H   68°(1910)…L -5°(1948)

Wind: ave:   11mph; Gusts:  17mph  Ave. humidity:  51%

Quote of the Day

Today’s Historical Highlights

► 1st college orchestra in US founded, at Harvard►1808

3,000 Mexicans beat 182 Texans at the Alamo, after 13 day fight►1836

Census Bureau forms►1902

Dred Scott Decision: Supreme Court rules slaves cannot be citizens►1857

Edgar Allen Poe removed from West Point milt academy►1831

Jack Nicklaus, passes Arnold Palmer as golf's all-time money winner►1972

Magellan discovers Guam►1521

Silly Putty invented►1950

US naval boat "Cyclops" disappears in Bermuda Triangle►1918

USAF begins daylight bombing of Berlin►1944

♪  ♪   Happy Birthday To: ♪. ♪   

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

Free Rambling Thoughts   

A nice quiet day at home. No need to do anything, anywhere. Caught up on some mail, a little cleaning. Nice. 

I feel so much safer when I am flying…they are now permitting carry-on knives that are less than 2.36 inches long and less than one-half inch wide. TSA will also permit sports equipment such as billiard cues, ski poles, hockey sticks, lacrosse sticks and two golf clubs. Souvenir, novelty and toy baseball bats -- such as wiffle-ball bats – while pitchforks, grenades, swords, nunchucks, stun guns, ammo and spears remain on the no-fly list. Some sports enthusiasts must be happy, except golfers, who really can’t play golf with two clubs. I expect an outcry from farmers who fly, since their pitchforks are still banned. Those who do reenactments are probably upset that their spears are still not carry on. In a few of the smaller planes I have flown the newly allowed items will still have to be checked, since the overhead is not large enough to accommodate them. And we still have to take off our shoes.

Game  Center (answers at the end of post)

Brain Teasers

Below are incomplete words. Place two letters in each bracket so that you can complete the word on the left and begin the word on the right. Good luck.

Perfu (--) rge Barb (--) itor Again (--) ain Sta (--) sture Giraf (--) deral Featu (--) medy

Lifestyle  Substance:     

Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

• The Thunderer by John Philip Sousa

• Pearl S. Buck Interview

• "The King and I" clips

 Ok, then?

Getting old-er

A nurse was on duty in the Emergency Roomwhen a young woman with purple hair styled into a punk rocker Mohawk, sporting a variety of tattoos, and wearing strange clothing, entered. It was quickly determined that the patient had acute appendicitis, so she was scheduled for immediate surgery. While she was completely disrobed on the operating table, the staff noticed that her pubic hair had been dyed green and above it there was a tattoo that read . . . 'Keep off the grass.' Once the surgery was completed, the surgeon wrote a short note on the patient's dressing, which said 'Sorry . . . had to mow the lawn. 'Submitted by RN, no name

Picture of the Day: Mountains of the world

Harper’s Index         

Ratio of US tax breaks to tax revenue in 2011: 1:1

Unusual Fact of the Day

A sardine is not a species of fish, but a name that can apply to many small varieties of pickled fish, including herring and pilchard.

Ancient Things

The Ancient Wall as a Cultural Barrier

The Great Wall of China has become so mythologized by in our imagination that we don’t realize it was actually the most extreme cultural barrier ever created. 

Joke-of-the-day

A forester and a lawyer were in car accident and showed up at the pearly gates together.

St. Peter greets them at the pearly gates and takes them to the homes where they will spend all of eternity. They get into St. Peter's holy vehicle and head on down a gold road, which turns into a platinum road, which turns onto an even grander road paved with diamonds, to a huge mansion where St. Peter turns to the lawyer and says, here is your home for the rest of eternity, enjoy! And if there is anything you need, just let me know.

Then St. Peter took the forester to his home, back down the diamond studded boulevard, down the platinum highway, down the street of gold, down an avenue of silver, along a stone alley and down an unpaved footpath to a shack. St Peter says, "Here you go" and goes to leave when the forester says "Wait minute! How come the lawyer gets the big mansion and I get this shack?"

St. Peter says: "Well, Foresters are a dime a dozen here, we have never had a lawyer before."

Rules of Thumb:   

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess

KEEPING A FRIEND

Never loan a friend more than you can afford to give away.   

Yeah, It Really Happened

Marc Bradly Johnson, an MFA student at New York's School of Visual Arts, had a great idea for his thesis project: he would fill 68 vials with his own semen, place them in a refrigerator in one of SVA's galleries, advertise the display on Craigslist, and then give away his semen to any interested members of the public.

Because it's art.

But, as the Daily Intelligencer reports, health-concerned administrators at SVA temporarily confiscated the project once it was brought to their attention.

"I've been working on this for months," Johnson told Daily Intelligencer, "Somewhat ironically - it's just masturbating and calling it artwork." He said his professors were well aware and that he'd shown the work multiple times in class critiques.

"This isn't unprecedented," he said. "There is plenty of bio-hazardous work in the art world."

So the refrigerator full of semen was seized and locked in an administrator's office until a waste-management firm could pick it up. Johnson claimed censorship.

Somewhat Useless Information   

• In 1690, the Massachusetts Bay Colony issued the first paper money in the colonies which would later form the United States. 

• In 1775, American colonists issued paper currency for the Continental Congress to finance the Revolutionary War. The notes were backed by the "anticipation" of tax revenues. 

• In 1781, to support the Revolutionary War, the Continental Congress chartered the Bank of North America in Philadelphia as the nation's first "real" bank. 

• In 1791, after adoption of the Constitution in 1789, Congress chartered the first Bank of the United States until 1811 and authorized it to issue paper bank notes to eliminate confusion and simplify trade. The bank served as the U.S. Treasury's fiscal agent, thus performing the first central bank functions. 

• In 1861, on the brink of bankruptcy and pressed to finance the Civil War, Congress authorized the United States Treasury to issue paper money for the first time in the form of non-interest bearing Treasury Notes call Demand Notes. 

• In 1877, the Department of the Treasury's Bureau of Engraving and Printing started printing all U.S. currency.

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                                                                      

Oreo Cookie Day

Learn What Your Name Means Day

~Ghana: Independence Day (1957 from UK)

Today’s Events through History  

1st time the British flag is flown over Buckingham Palace►1998

Barry Sadlers' "Ballad of the Green Berets" becomes #1►1966 

Elijah Muhammad renames Cassius Clay, Muhammad Ali►1964

Picasso's painting Tête de Femme is stolen from a London gallery, and 

     is recovered a week later►1997

Walter Cronkite signs-off as anchorman of "CBS Evening News"►1981

Yul Brynner appears in his 4,500th performance of "King & I"►1985

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

In their 80’s

Alan Greenspan, economist/presidential advisor (FRB) is 87

In their 70’s

David Spielberg, actor (Jessica Novak, The Practice) is 74

 In their 60’s

Martin Kove, Bkln NY, actor (Victor-Cagney & Lacey) is 67

Rob Reiner, actor/director (All in the Family, Stand By Me)  is 66

 In their 50’s

Tom Arnold, actor is 54

Darryl Lynn ‘D.L.’ Hughley, American comedian and actor is 50

In their 40’s

Shaquille O'Neal, NBA center (Magic, Lakers, Oly-gold-96) is 41

Remembered for being born today

Cyrano de Bergerac, famous nose, playwright (Voyage to the Moon) [1619-1655]

Leroy Gordon Cooper Jr, USAF/astronaut (Mer 9, Gem 5) [1927-2004]

Lou Costello, , comedian/actor (Abbott & Costello) [1906-1959]

Ed McMahon, TV host (Johnny Carson Show, Star Search) [1923-2009]

Michelangelo, Italian painter (David) [1475-1564]

Bob Wills, actor (Lone Prairie, Tornado in the Saddle) [1906-1975]

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           

Louisa May Alcott, US author (Old-fashioned Girl)-stroke-1888-at 55

Jim Bowie, American pioneer and soldier-at Alamo-1836-at 40

Pearl S[ydenstricker] Buck, author (Good Earth-Nobel 1938)-1973-at 80

Davy Crockett, US pioneer (Alamo), killed at Alamo-1836-at 49

Nelson Eddy, US baritone/actor (Phantom of the Opera)- cerebral hemorrhage-1967-at 65

William Hopper, actor (Paul Drake-Perry Mason)-stroke-1970-at 55

Georgia O'Keefe, US painter (Flowers)-1986-at 98

Ayn Rand (Alisa Zinov'yevna Rosenbaum), author-philosopher-heart failure-1982-at 77

John Philip Sousa, US composer (Stars & Stripes Forever)- heart failure-1932-at 77

Answer: Brain Teasers

Perfume - merge Barbed - editor Against - stain Stage - gesture Giraffe - federal Feature - remedy

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  §