7/2/13

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Almanac: Flagstaff:  Week: 27/ Day: 813   Today: H 91°…L 59°

Wind: ave:   9mph; Gusts:  30mph  Ave. humidity:  28%

*

Average Low	Average High	Record Low	Record High
47°	82°	34° (1997)	92° (1969)

Quote of the Day

Today’s Historical Highlights

"Lawrence Welk Show" premieres on ABC…1955

Battle of Gettysburg (2nd day)…1863

Benjamin Lane patents gas mask with a breathing apparatus…1850

Braniff Airlines goes out of business…1992

Elvis Presley records "Hound Dog" & "Don't Be Cruel"…1956

Formal reunification of North & South Vietnam…1976

India & Pakistan sign peace accord…1972

Pres Johnson signs Civil Rights Act & Voting Rights Act into law…1964

Susan B Anthony dollar is issued, 1st US coin to honor a woman…1979

Thomas Savery patents the first steam engine…1698

Vermont becomes 1st American colony to abolish slavery…1777

William Booth founds Salvation Army (Army of the Salvation)…1865

♫  Today’s Birthdays: ♫   

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

My Free Rambling Thoughts   

A difficult day for all of us in AZ. Last night 19 hot shot firefighters lost their lives while fighting a fire near Prescott. Working on the rez, I had lots of contact with hot shot crews. Many former students have selected that line of work. We are used to ‘fire season’ here in AZ and in the past few years we have seen many huge wildfires hit our state during this decades long drought. We have never had such a devastating loss. This event simply reminds us of several things: life is unpredictable; firefighters put their lives on the line at every fire; no matter how much training, wildfires are called that for a reason. Such a sad day for AZ; for all of America; and for the world.

 

Cheryl and I had lunch today. Her son and his family are coming tomorrow for the 4^th celebrations. Should be a good time for all of them. We caught up on the news; the loss of firefighters; a couple of the people from Tuba that we are going to contact, as we haven’t heard from them for a while. Great lunch at a small Italian/Pizza place. More food than I could eat, so I’ll have the rest for lunch tomorrow.

 

It was another H*O*T day!. Not a record breaker; but close. I sure hope this ends soon. The hardest part is that it doesn’t cool down at night, until about 3a. Fan just moves the hot air; no cooler upstairs. Getting tempted to buy a small air conditioner for the bedroom. I have never had an air conditioner; always used swamp coolers in this dry climate; but don’t want to raise the humidity in the bedroom. I can hold out a few more days, but that’s about it.

 

CNN just had a very good program on ‘the N-Word’. Sadly no answers but sure some good perspectives, both historical and cultural. CNN has a home run.

 

A couple more things about the lost firefighters. Many are posting pictures of the crew from Prescott…sadly, these pictures are several years old and many in the picture are no longer hot shot crew members. Inexcusable, since many might think that someone died who did not, and some that died are not in the pictures. Secondly, a good hearted person put up a memorial logo for the lost firefighters. In a rush, the person put ‘IXX’ to represent the 19 who died. It should have said ‘XIX’. It is a small error for sure but spread across the internet quite quickly. It has now been corrected and posted, but the original lives on….like everything on the internet machine. Sadly, even news feeds posted the incorrect logo on their web sites…and few have corrected it.   Sad.

Game  Center (answers at the end of post)

Brain Teasers

What does this represent?
NOXQQIVIT

Lifestyle  Substance:     

Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

• Johnny Weir - Dr. Zhivago

• Rowan & Martin Laugh In - Quickies #2

• Ernest Hemingway's Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech

• Car 54 – Enchanting

Hmmmm…Oxymorons

Soft rock Spendthrift Standard deviation Stand down

Ok, then?

Harper’s Index    

Percentage of US law school graduates from the past 25 years not working as lawyers: 1/3

Picture of the Day: Flagstaff…long ago

Unusual Fact of the Day

The act of snapping one's fingers has a name. It is called a "fillip."

Joke-of-the-day

How many divorced men does it take to change a light bulb? NONE, they never get the house!

Rules of Thumb:   

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess

ANKLE INJURIES

 If the patient arrives at a hospital hopping on their good foot, the bad ankle is almost certainly not broken.   

Yeah, It Really Happened

An SUV hit a home in Jacksonville, FL ejecting the driver onto the couch in the living room.

"At approximately 3:05 this morning, a vehicle was westbound on Wilson Boulevard, failed to negotiate a curve, ran off the road, knocked over a mailbox and some trees, ended up hitting a house," said Detective J.C. Hurst.

The driver was ejected and ended up on the couch in the living room, upside down. He was transported to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

"I did see somebody on the couch in my neighbors living room, sitting there," a neighbor said. "We've been living here for the last nine years, so this is something unusual to see."

Police said speed was a factor and they were investigating whether alcohol was also a factor.

• Somewhat Useless Information   

• The Sun makes up about 99.8% of the weight of our entire solar system.

• The Sun is about 4.5 billion years old and is expected to shine for another 5 billion years.

• Seventy five percent of all the stars in the Universe are smaller and less massive than the Sun.

• The sun is about 92.96 million miles away and is the closest star to Earth.

• In just one hour, the earth receives more energy from the sun than the whole world uses in an an entire year.

• Only the Sun's exterior shines bright, while its inside is entirely dark. If the outside of the sun were to disappear, so would the glow.

Calendar Information        

Happening This Week:

1-7

National Education Association Week
National Unassisted Homebirth Week

Today Is                                                                      

·        I  Forgot Day

·        Made In The USA Day

·        UN International Day of Cooperatives

·        World UFO Day

Today’s Events through History  

Europeans first visit Minnesota and see headwaters of Mississippi in an expedition 

     led by Daniel Greysolon de Du Luth…1679

Hitler orders invasion of England (Operation Sealion)…1940

Ingrid Betancourt and 14 other FARC hostages are rescued by the Colombian 

     armed forces…2008

Steve Fossett becomes the first person to fly solo around the world nonstop  

     in a balloon…2002

The first English expedition from Massachusetts against Acadia led by Samuel Argall…1613

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

In their 80’s

Robert Ito, Vancouver BC, actor (Sam-Quincy ME) is 82

In their 70’s

Polly Holliday, actress (Flo-Alice, Flo-Flo) is 76

Richard Petty, auto race driver (Daytona 500-1979,81) is 76

In their 60’s

Larry David, actor/comedian/writer (Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm) is 66

Luci Baines Johnson Nugent Turpin, daughter of Pres LBJ is 66

In their 40’s

Yancy Butler, television and movie actress  is 43

Under 30

Lindsay Lohan, actress, model is 27

Ashley Tisdale, Disney Actress is 28

Johnny Weir, figure skater is 29

Remembered for being born today

William Henry Bragg, English physicist, Nobel laureate [1862-1942]

Thomas Cranmer, England, archbishop/reformer/martyr [1489-1556]

Ken Curtis, [Curtis Gates], Lamar CO, actor (Ripcord, Festus-Gunsmoke) [1916-1991]

Hermann Hesse, Switzerland, novelist/poet (Steppenwolf, Nobel), [1877-1962]

Patrice E Lumumba, Zaire, revolutionary/1st premier of Congo [1925-1961]

Thurgood Marshall, 1st black Supreme Court justice (1967-91), [1908-1993]

Dan Rowan, comedian (Rowan & Martin's Laugh-in) [1922-1987]

Ron Silver, actor, director, producer, radio host and political activist [1946-2009]

Dave Thomas, founder (Wendy's Restaurants) [1932-2002]

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           

Amelia Earhart Putnam, Dutch pilot/1st female to fly Atlantic…disappeared…1937…at 39

John Fitch, inventor, clockmaker…1798…at 55

Betty Grable, actress (How to Marry a Millionaire)…cancer…1973…at 56

Fred Gwynne, actor (Herman-Munsters)…pancreatic cancer…1993…at 66

Ernest Hemingway, author and Nobel laureate…suicide…1961…at 61

Jan Murray, comedian, game show host…2006…at 89

Nostradamus, [Michel de Nostre-Dam], French astrologist…dropsy…1566…at 62

Mario Puzo, American author…heart failure…1999…at 78

Lee Remick, actress (Days of Wine & Roses)…cancer….1991…at 55

Beverly Sills, American operatic soprano…lung cancer…2007…at 78

Jimmy Stewart, actor (It's a Wonderful Life), dies at 89

Answer: Brain Teasers

No excuse for it.

NO = No XQQ = x q's = excuse IV = Roman numeral for 4 = for IT = it

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  §