4/4/13

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Flagstaff Almanac:  Week: 14/ Day: 94   Today: H 62°…L 24°

Averages: H  55° L 26° Records: H 71°(1961)…L 8°(1980)

Wind: ave:   12mph; Gusts:  26mph  Ave. humidity:  48%

Quote of the Day

Today’s Historical Highlights

32nd Academy Awards - "Ben-Hur," Charlton Heston & Simone Signoret win…1960

Announcement of Gold in Yukon…1896

Bryant's Minstrels debut "Dixie" in New York City in the finale of a blackface minstrel show…1859

Congress decided US flag is 13 red & white stripes & 20 stars…1818

Golden Gate Park forms by City Order #800…1870

Hank Aaron ties Babe Ruth's home-run record by hitting his 714^th…1974

Martin Luther King, Jr. assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee…1968

Microsoft is founded as a partnership between Bill Gates and Paul Allen…1975

♪  ♪   Happy Birthday To: ♪. ♪   

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

Free Rambling Thoughts   

A fairly nice shorts, sandals and T day. Nice to be outside until the wind picked up. Can’t have everything here at 7000’.

 

My cruise is less than a month away…coming fast. Today I got a look at all the possible day trips on the cruise…for a cost of course. Some look very nice as they are walking tours of some of the stops, others are bus tours and I’m not really into too much of that. Certainly a lot to choose from. I’m sure Bob will have some in mind. Ellie is also working on a couple of tours for our group. Should be a great trip.

 

North Korea just keeps making noise. Looks like the US is ‘gearing up’ a show of force. History tells as that this sort of thing happens with them every decade or so and they usually get some concessions. TED put a great video up today on Facebook. A young N. Korean girl escaped to China at the age of 10 then went back to save her family. The most interesting part was how she went to school in N. Korea and was taught how bad the US, S. Korea and Japan were their enemy. The kids wondered why it was so dark in their little town at night, when right across the river in China, everything was lighted. Interesting how brain washing happens.

 

Are White liberals racist? Some Blacks are coming out and saying yes. Their contention is that White liberals have a box to put minorities in and when they don’t fit into that box, they demonize them. Examples are Clarence Thomas, Colin Powell, and conservative Black others. Sadly, I think in many ways they are right about the mainstream media and its coverage. Any demonizing never leads to good conversations.

 Game  Center (answers at the end of post)

Brain Teasers

Van Gogh (pronounced "Go") is back, with more of his relatives.
e.g. One of them was a well-known musical cousin from Liverpool, England. His name? Ring Gogh! (Ringo)
From the clues, can you guess the other names?

1. An elderly uncle who plays the numbers game at his community hall. 2. His young nephew who bounces everywhere. 3. A long-lost brother who had been on his yacht exploring a group of islands in the Pacific. 4. An aunt, famous for her milk pudding recipe. 5. His cousin with the skin infection. 6. The teenage niece who wears dark, trendy shades of blue and purple. 7. His Great Uncle Emil, the famous lecturer on self-esteem.

***

Hint if needed:
The hint gives the first letter, and number of letters, for each word.

1. B****

2. P***

3. A**********

4. S***

5. I*******

6. I*****

7. E**

Lifestyle  Substance:     

Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

• Angelou On The Power Of Words

• "Perils of Pauline"

• David Blaine Street Magic

Origins of Phrases

Baby boomer

Meaning

A person born during the temporary peak in the birth-rate that occurred in several countries following WWII, notably the USA and the UK.

Origin

A 'baby boom' is any temporary increase in the birth-rate and that term was in use some time before WWII. A 'baby boom' was reported in various newspapers in England in the 1920s; for example, this piece, reprinted inThe Coshocton Tribune, April 1920:There is a 'baby boom' in London. Births during the first six months of this year have broken all records.'The Baby Boom' - as opposed to 'a baby boom', refers to the increase in population in the countries that were victorious in WWII. The period is generally regarded as beginning in 1946 and ending in the mid-1960s.There are citations of the term being used in the USA prior to or very early in WWII. At first sight these tend to contradict the view that it referred to the increase in the birth-rate due to the war. Logic would suggest that any baby boom couldn't begin until at least nine months after war had become inevitable and the USA had declared itself neutral in 1939. Those 1939/40 references to a 'baby boom' don't relate to a boom in the number of babies though, but to a small boom in the stock market. This growth in the economy was caused by an upsurge in manufacturing resulting from increased trade with Europe due to WWII. This 'baby boom' was widely reported in the US press in late 1939 and early 1940; for example, this item from The Syracuse Herald-Journal, April 1940:"Stocks with a war flavor bounded up to more than 4 points in today's early market, in the fastest sprint since the 'baby boom' of last fall, but the majority stumbled badly in the latter part of the proceedings."The 'boom' in babies didn't wait until servicemen returned from the war, as is popularly supposed. There was a temporary increase in the birth-rate when the US effectively entered the war in 1941, as reported by The Galveston Daily News in December, 1941 - "Baby Boom Increases Population of U.S.". There was some speculation about the cause of this at the time and some commentators put it down to men trying to avoid the draft by becoming parents - an unsuccessful ploy if true, as many new fathers were drafted into the forces in WWII.The term 'baby boomer' was coined in the USA, clearly with reference to the already widely known 'baby boom'. This wasn't for some years after WWII and the earliest citation I've found is surprisingly late - a piece in The Bennington Banner from December 1977:"I grew up in suburban Massachusetts, a postwar baby boomer not used to seeing empty seats in classrooms or enough textbooks to go around."The term 'baby boomer' was initially used simply with reference to the peaks in birth-rate in the USA and UK. Over time, the connotations of the term have widened. The major economic, social and demographic changes that have been lived through by the postwar generations in the Western world have given the 'baby boomers' a unique position. They are healthier and wealthier than previous generations and can look forward to an active old-age that was denied previous generations, and also probably future ones as western economies struggle to maintain pension provision. The 'boomers' also developed rebellious, anti-establishment attitudes which have been carried on into older age, which is in contrast with a previous more deferential society and late 20th century apathy.The 'baby boom' has led on to other expressions - 'baby bust' and 'echo boom'. These refer respectively to the period of relative low birth-rate in the 1950s which resulted in low school enrolments in the 1960s and the high birth-rates in the 1970s, when the original baby boomers had their children. These terms were both referred to in an article in The Newark Advocate, August 1975:"Newark was not the only school district caught by surprise by the 'baby bust.' Population experts expected the postwar baby boom children, now grown, to produce an echo boom in the 1970s."

Ok, then?

Harper’s Index    

Percentage change since 2010 in the per-pound cost of a Thanksgiving turkey: +22

Picture of the Day: Rainforest Primates

Unusual Fact of the Day

There are over 40 ships buried underneath the city blocks of the financial district of San Francisco. Abandoned gold rush ships and their wharves were buried beneath landfill used to fill in Yerba Buena cove; the residents of San Francisco needed more housing.

Joke-of-the-day

A Sunday school teacher asked the children in her class, "If I sold my house and my car, had a big garage sale and gave all my money to the church, would I get into Heaven?"

"No!" the children all answered.

"If I cleaned the church every day, mowed the yard, and kept everything neat and tidy, would I get into Heaven?"

Again the answer was "No!"

"Well", she continued, "then how can I get into Heaven?"

A five-year-old boy shouted out, "You gotta be dead!"

Rules of Thumb:   

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess

HIDING THINGS

Never hide an object at eye level. If you're hiding something from children, never hide it below your eye level.    

Yeah, It Really Happened

SEATTLE - A Seattle company specializing in bacon-flavored products said its two newest products aren't for ingestion -- bacon sunscreen and bacon-flavored condoms. J&D's Foods, famous for products included bacon-flavored salt and "baconnaise" sandwich spread, said it is releasing an SPF 30 sunscreen designed to keep the wearer "smelling like something delicious is cooking for several hours," WEWS-TV, Cleveland, reported Monday. The company is also releasing condoms that look like bacon and are coated with "an ultra-premium Bacon-flavored personal lubricant." The bottles of sunscreen and condom three-packs each cost $9.99.  

Somewhat Useless Information   

In Sweden, where they use an innovative waste-to-energy program and highly efficient recycling habits, they have actually run out of trash. In order to continue fueling the waste-to-energy factories that provide electricity to a quarter of a million homes and 20 percent of the entire country's district heating, Sweden is now importing trash from the landfills of other European countries. In fact, those countries are paying Sweden to do so, turning garbage into gold for Sweden.  

Calendar Information        

Happening This Week:

31-4/6

National Week Of The Ocean

1-7

The APAWS Pooper Scooper  Week
Explore Your Career Options
Golden RuleWeek 
Laugh at Work Week
Medication Safety Week
4-10

Testicular Cancer Awareness Week

Hate Week

Today Is                                                                      

 International Day for Mine Awareness & Assistance in Mine Action

National D.A.R.E. Day

Square Root Day

Tell-A-Lie Day

Victims of Violence Day

Vitamin C Day

Wholly Day

World Rat Day

~Senegal: Independence Day (1960 from France)

~Taiwan: Children's Day

Today’s Events through History  

"Perils of Pauline" shown for 1st time in LA…1914

COMANCHE Chief Piava arranges an exchange of 2 prisoners with the residents

      of San Antonio. Two captives from each side are released…1840

Ignatius of Loyola becomes 1st superior-general of Jesuits…1541

Napoleon abdicates for the first time…1814

Raid on the FLDS ranch in Texas, 401 children, 133 woman were taken into

     state custody…2008

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

In their 80’s

Maya Angelou, [Marguerite Johnson], St Louis, poet/actress (Nyo-Roots) is 85

Cloris Leachman, actress (Phyllis, High Anxiety) is 87

In their 60’s

Christine Lahti, actress/director is 63

Craig T. Nelson, actor (Poltergeist, Hayden Fox-Coach) is 69

In their 40’s

David Blaine, illusionist is 40

David Cross, comedian is 49

Robert Downey Jr, comedian (SNL, Less than Zero, Back to School) is 48

Remembered for being born today

Anthony Perkins, actor [1932-1992]

Thaddeus Stevens, US Radical Republican congressional leader (Rep-R) [1792-1868]

Bob Stump, (Rep-R-AZ) [1927-2003]

John Cameron Swayze, Wichita Ks, newscaster (Timex, Hindenberg) [NS] [1906-1995]

Muddy Waters, [McKinley Morganfield], blues guitarist (Hoochie Coochie Man) [1913-1983]

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           

William Henry Harrison, becomes 1st pres to die in office… septicemia…1841…at 68

Martin Luther King Jr…assassinated at the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis Tennessee…1968… at 39

Andre Michelin, French tire manufacturer…1941…at 88

John Napier, Scottish mathematician/inventor (logarithms)…1617…at 66ish

Adam Clayton Powell Jr, (Rep-D-NY)…prostititus…1972…at 63

Gloria Swanson, actress (Airport 1975)…heart ailment…1983…at 84

Answer: Brain Teasers

1. Bing Gogh (Bingo) 2. Poe-Gogh (Pogo) 3. Archie Pele-Gogh (Archipelago) 4. Sae Gogh (Sago) 5. Impa Tai-Gogh (Impetigo) 6. Indy Gogh (Indigo) 7. Prof. E Gogh (Ego)

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  §