Earth Day 4/22/13

FYI: Any blue text is a link. Click to check it out!

Flagstaff Almanac:  Week: 17/ Day: 112   Today: H 68°…L 28°

Wind: ave:   3mph; Gusts:  27mph  Ave. humidity:  28%

*Averages: H  60° L 30° Records: H 78°(1989)…L 12°(1972)

Quote of the Day

Today’s Historical Highlights

1st Earth Day held internationally to conserve natural resources…1970

1st military use of poison gas (chlorine, by Germany) in WW I…1915

1st NBA Championship: Phila Warriors beat Chicago Stags, 4 games to 2…1947

Barbara Walters becomes 1st female nightly network news anchor…1976

Bastille begins being built in Paris…1370

Federal agents seize six-year-old Elián González from his relatives' home in Miami…2000

Holocaust Memorial Museum dedicated in Wash DC…1993

Largest US bank robbery (Tucson Ariz), more than $3.3 million stolen…1981

♪  ♪   Happy Birthday To: ♪. ♪   

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

Free Rambling Thoughts   

Whoa!!! 68° today…what a great spring day. I was able to open windows for most of the day. So nice!

 

News shows sure gave a lot of different perspectives to the Boston story. Nice to listen to it, and not hear any government bashing. Sure there are questions about the FBI on the older brother, but those will be answered. Thankfully, no one is calling for ID and records of people who buy a pressure cooker.

 

I am still amazed that Homeland Security does not keep track of visitors to the US in a better way. I have never understood the need to fill out the cards when flying internationally. First, when filling out the card, you are usually on an airplane and clear legible writing is not easy. Secondly, they scan your passport and usually take a picture of you…many times requiring that you take off your glasses. I always figured that most of the purpose for all the checks was to give locals a job. With all the technology out there for the general public, surely there is a program that would gather information when the passport is scanned. If you are on a limited Visa, then that program would send a notice to someone that you didn’t leave on time, and are illegally in the country…no matter what country. According to many here in the US, the government has no idea how many people are living here on expired Visas. Why not? Agreed knowing is different than finding, but at least the government would have a name and address and picture to start.

 

Still learning more and more about my iPhone. Gotta go back to the store to find out why the screen won’t rotate when I turn the phone. Internet machine was no help. Technology is amazing, but takes time to figure out.

Game  Center (answers at the end of post)

Brain Teasers

When you behead a word, you remove the first letter and still have a valid word. You will be given clues for the two words, longer word first. Example: Begin -> Sour, acidic
Answer: The words are Start and Tart.

1. Skin problem; reckless -> Fire by-product
2. One way of moving a boat -> Requiring to pay
3. Loud noise -> Used to move a boat
4. Used to steer a boat -> Cow mammary gland
5. Distant -> Display feelings openly
6. One who patrols a region -> Strong displeasure
7. A connection among things -> Feeling of joy and pride
8. Quick political change -> Gradual biological change

*****

Hint

The shorter words start with these letters:
1. A
2. O
3. O
4. U
5. E
6. A
7. E
8. E

Lifestyle  Substance:     

Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

• Glen Campbell Farewell

• Jane Froman Sings "I'll Walk Alone"

• Ansel Adams: Landscape Photography at its Finest

Origins of Phrases

The customer is always right

Meaning

The trading policy that states a company's keenness to be seen to put the customer first.

Origin

Several retail concern used this as a slogan from the early 20th century onward. In the USA it is particularly associated with Marshall Field's department store, Chicago (established in the late 19th century). The store is an icon of the city, although it is set to lose its name in 2006 when, following a takeover, it becomes renamed as Macy's. In the UK, Harry Gordon Selfridge (1857-1947) the founder of London's Selfridges store (opened in 1909), is credited with championing its use. The Wisconsin born Selfridge worked for Field from 1879 to 1901. Both men were dynamic and creative businessmen and it's highly likely that one of them coined the phrase, although we don't know which.

Of course, these entrepreneurs didn't intend to be taken literally. What they were attempting to do was to make the customer feel special by inculcating into their staff the disposition to behave as if the customer was right, even when they weren't.

The trading policy and the phrase were well-known by the early 20th century. From the Kansas City Star, January 1911 we have a piece about a local country store that was modeled on Field's/Selfridges:

[George E.] "Scott has done in the country what Marshall Field did in Chicago, Wannamaker did in New York and Selfridge in London. In his store he follows the Field rule and assumes that the customer is always right."

Whether the phrase was coined by Field or Selfridge it is fair to call it American. What we can't do is credit them with the idea behind it. In 1908 César Ritz (1850-1918), the celebrated French hotelier is credited with saying 'Le client n'a jamais tort' - 'The customer is never wrong'. That's not the phrase that people now remember, but it can hardly be said to be any different in meaning to 'the customer is always right'.

Ok, then?

Harper’s Index    

Percentage of Americans with HIV who are over the age of 45: 50

Ruminations:

‘Tired’ sefinition: stopping at a stop sign and sitting there waiting for it to turn green.

Picture of the Day: Signs of Spring

Unusual Fact of the Day

Mozart's "Ah! Vous Dirai-je, Maman" might well be his most popular melody — it's the tune used in both "The Alphabet Song" and "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star."

Joke-of-the-day

This police officer sees an old lady driving and knitting at the same time so after driving next to her for awhile he yells to her,"PULLOVER".

She replies,"No a pairof socks".  

Rules of Thumb:   

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess

CHECKING A REFERENCE

 If you are checking a reference and you ask someone's former employer, "Would you hire this person again?" any answer but "yes" is a "no."    

Yeah, It Really Happened

HOUSTON - A 12 1/2-pound bass caught in Texas may be only the first of thousands of record-breaking fish sportsmen can expect to catch, researchers say. The fish, hooked recently in an East Texas lake, has been genetically linked to a 14-pound largemouth bass caught in December 2004 in a lake 450 miles to the south, the Houston Chronicle reported Friday. Jerry Campos caught the 14-pound fish on Falcon Lake in Laredo near the Mexican border. The bass, later named ShareLunker370, was entered into a program at the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center in Athens, Texas, in which fishermen share their prize catches with others. At the center, ShareLunker 370 bred with a female bass that produced 12,699 fingerlings. Some of them were retained at the center but 173 offspring were released into Lake Naconiche in East Texas. There's where the 12 1/2-pounder was caught by Allen Lane Kruse, whose catch set a water-body and catch-and-release record. The center releases fingerlings into more than 60 reservoirs in Texas, so another record-breaking catch is probably just waiting to be pulled out of the water.

Somewhat Useless Information   

• The ocean contains enough salt to cover all of the continents by 500 feet

• A thimbleful of a Neutron Star would weigh over 100 million tons

• Human scientists can produce a laser beam one million times brighter than sunlight

• The first synthetic human chromosome was created by US scientists in 1997

• The average person accidentally eats 430 bugs per year

• Humans and dolphins shared a common ancestor 60-65 million years ago

Calendar Information        

Happening This Week:

17-24
International Whistlers Week
Cleaning For A Reason Week
Consumer Awareness Week
Police Officers Who Gave Their Lives In The Line of Duty Week

20-28
National Park Week

Money Smart Week
Administrative Professionals Week

Coin Week
Fibroid Awareness Week
National Karaoke Week
National Volunteer Week
National Pet ID Week
National Paperboard Packaging Week
National Playground Safety Week 
Oral, Head and Neck Cancer Awareness Week

Preservation Week-Libraries
Sky Awareness Week
National Work Zone Safety Awareness Week
Safe Kids Week
Mariachi Week

Today Is                                                                      

Chemists Celebrate The Earth Day

Earth Day

Girl Scout Leaders Day

“In God We Trust Day" Day 1864, 1^st put on coins

Mother Earth Day

National Jelly Bean Day

US: Oklahoma: Oklahoma Day (1889: commemorates when land opened for European settlement.)

Today’s Events through History  

Congress passes Volunteer Army Act calling for a Volunteer Cavalry…1898

Pres Washington attends opening of Rickett's, 1st circus in US…1793

Ticker-tape parade for General MacArthur in NYC…1951

Tchaikovsky completes his "Swan Lake" ballet…1876

World's Fair (Flushing Meadow, Corona Park, NY) opens…1964

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

In their 70’s

Glen Campbell, Delight Ark, actor/singer (Time I Get to Phoenix) is 77

Jack Nicholson, actor (One Flew Over Cuckoo's Nest, Shining) is 76

In their 50’s

Joseph Bottoms, actor (Surfacing, Blind Date) is 59

Ryan Stiles, actor [Drew Cary, Two and Half Men] is 54

Remembered for being born today

Eddie Albert, [Heimberger], actor (Oliver-Green Acres) [1906-2005]

Immanuel Kant, Konigsberg Germ, philosopher (Critique of Pure Reason) [1724-1804]

Nikolai Lenin, [Vladimir Ilich Ulyanov], Bolshevik/USSR revolutionist [1870-1924]

Hal March, actor/TV host ($64,000 Question, Outrage) [1920-1970]

J[ulius] Robert Oppenheimer, NY, head of Manhattan (A-bomb) Project [1904-1967]

Aaron Spelling, television producer (Charlie's Angels) 91923-2006]

Eleazar Wheelock, American founder of Dartmouth College [1711-1779]

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           

Ansel Adams, US photographer…1984…at 82

Erma Bombeck, humorist (Grass is Greener)…kidney disease…1996…at 69

Cesar Chavez, US farm worker (United Farm Workers)…natural causes…1993…at 66

John Crome, [Old Crome], English landscape painter/etcher…1821…at 52

Jane Froman, singer (Jane Froman's USA Canteen)…cardiac arrest…1980…at 72

Will Geer, actor (Grandpa Walton-Waltons)…respiratory failure…1978…at 75

Huey Newton, US, Black Panther leader…shot…1989…at 47

Richard Nixon, 37th President (1969-75)…stroke…1994…at 81

Stephen H. Sholes, American recording executive…heart attack…1968…at 57

Pat Tillman, football player and U.S. Army Ranger (killed by friendly fire)…2004…at 27

Answer: Brain Teasers

1. Rash -> Ash
2. Rowing -> Owing
3. Roar -> Oar
4. Rudder -> Udder
5. Remote -> Emote
6. Ranger -> Anger
7. Relation -> Elation
8. Revolution -> Evolution

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  §