7\7\13

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Almanac: Flagstaff:  Week: 28/ Day: 188   Today: H 81°…L 57°

Wind: ave:   5mph; Gusts:  22mph  Ave. humidity:  52%

*

Average Low	Average High	Record Low	Record High
49°	82°	32° (1955)	92° (1905)

Quote of the Day

Today’s Historical Highlights

12,000 police occupy university in Mexico City…1977

127°F (53°C), Parker Ariz (state record)…1905

1st comic book "The Wasp," is published…1801

Beginning of the civil war in Biafra…1967

British Museum founded by an Act of Parliament (opens in 1759)…1753

Chocolate introduced…1550

"God Save the King" is 1st sung…1607

Construction begins on Boulder (Hoover) Dam…1930

Land Grant Act endows state colleges with federal land…1862

Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini canonized as 1st American saint…1946

Retrial verdict acquits Joan of Arc of heresy 25 years after her death…1456

Sandra Day O'Connor nominated for the Supreme Court…1981

Sliced bread is sold for the first time by the Chillicothe Baking Company of Chillicothe, 

     Missouri. It is described as the greatest forward step in the baking industry since 

     bread was wrapped"…1928 

University of Delaware invents "junior year abroad" (at Sorbonne)…1923

♫  Today’s Birthdays: ♫   

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

My Free Rambling Thoughts   

Lots of thunderstorms Saturday here in our small mountain town. Sadly, that means flooding for the many people who live below a burn area in East Flagstaff. A lot has been spent to stop the damage, but it sounds like a few of the streets are flooding. The problem is that the flooding brings debris from the mountain and leaves lots of sand, silt, and foliage in the drainage ditches and on the neighborhood streets that flood.

 

Talked to my brother this afternoon. He and his wife are back from Mexico and had a great time. As with any vacation, they are looking forward to a good night’s sleep and a day to rest before returning to the grind of work tomorrow.

 

I have flown on the Boeing 777 many times. Watching the crash results in SF certainly gives me pause. These people were in the air for about 12+ hours and were tired and excited to get off the plane. Thankfully I have never had a hard landing in that plane, but have been on a flight that I think is about to land when it suddenly heads back up. Not a pleasant experience. While there are lots of exits and flight crews are trained well, the aisles are narrow and with over 300 people trying to get out all at once is frightening and adding a fire would make it worse. Amazing photos to see people carrying bags as they went down the slide and ran from the plane. Really? Seems to me that the most important thing is to get off the plane alive, not to grab your computer or trinkets or duty free. But then again, don’t know what I would do in that situation.

Game  Center (answers at the end of post)

Brain Teasers

Take the given words, and by moving a single letter from one word to the other, make a pair of synonyms, or near synonyms. For example, given: Boast - Hip, move the 's' from 'Boast' to 'Hip' creating two synonyms: Boat - Ship.

1. Rode - Can 2. Font - Farce 3. Tory - Stale 4. Dire - Cash 5. Self - Shill

Lifestyle  Substance:     

Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

• octopus - syd barrett

• Joel Siegel on Airplane Fares and Movie Ticket Prices

• Michelle Kwan 2003 World Championships

Hmmmm…Oxymorons

Evaporated milk Even odds Exact estimate Extensive briefing

Ok, then?

Harper’s Index    

Rank of Saudi Arabia among nations with most viewers per capita on You Tube: 1

Picture of the Day: Street Markets

Unusual Fact of the Day

Norwegian cross country skier Odd-Bjørn Hjelmeset attributed his disappointing silver medal in the 4×10-kilometer relay at the 2010 Winter Olympics to less-than-focused preparation. “I think I have seen too much porn in the last 14 days,” he said.

Joke-of-the-day

Notice on the bulletin board at the wrestling arena: “There will be a rehearsal for tonight’s bout at 2pm.”  

Rules of Thumb:   

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess

PLAYING POKER

 An old rule of thumb says that when your turn comes to call, don't do it - raise or fold. Not always, of course, but amateurs will call a lot more often than professionals.    

Yeah, It Really Happened

DALLAS - A retired teacher from Dallas who wore the same outfit for yearbook picture day for 40 years says he started the trend by accident and kept it up on a dare. Dale Irby, 63, said the whole stunt started out in 1974, when he wore the same outfit for picture day as he did the year before, the Dallas Morning News reported. "I was so embarrassed when I got the school pictures back that second year and realized I had worn the very same thing as the first year," said Irby, an elementary school gym teacher. Then, his wife dared him to wear the outfit -- a patterned polyester shirt and coffee-colored sweater -- again for a third year in a row. "After five pictures," he said, "it was like: 'Why stop?'" Irby wore the same outfit every year until he retired from Prestonwood Elementary this year. "He took his job so seriously in teaching good sportsmanship -- both in athletics and in life," Prestonwood principal Pam Aitken said. "He taught a lot of kids to be fair and respectful of others. That's a great legacy to leave."  

Somewhat Useless Information   

• The first American satellite in orbit, Explorer I, was launched February 1, 1958.

• The first man-made object to circle the earth was Sputnik I, launched in 1957.

• The International Space Station weighs about 500 tons and is the same size as a football field.

• The three most recently discovered planets were Uranus in 1781, Neptune in 1846, and Pluto in 1930.

Calendar Information        

Happening This Week:

1-7

National Education Association Week
National Unassisted Homebirth Week
4-7

Beans and Bacon Days:
International Chicken Wing Week

4-10

Freedom Week: 4-10 
7-13  
Be Nice To New Jersey Week
Creative Maladjustment Week
National Farriers Week
Nude Recreation Weekend

Today Is                                                                      

·        Chocolate Day

·        Father-Daughter Take A Walk Together Day

·        Global Forgiveness Day

·        Tell The Truth Day

^^

·        Japan: Tanabata/Star Festival (celebrates the meeting of the deities Orihime and Hikoboshi (represented by the stars Vega and Altair respectively))

·        Solomon Islands: Independence Day (1978 from Australia)

·        Spain: Running of the Bulls (since 14^th c)

·        Tanzania: Saba Saba Day (1954 founding of the Tanganyika African National Union

Today’s Events through History  

Coordinated terrorist bomb blasts strike London's public transport system during the 

     morning rush hour killing 52 and injuring 700…2005

Coronado attacks the Zuni village of Hawikuh in what becomes New Mexico…1540

Doors' "Light My Fire" hits #1…1967

Oñate’s expedition is at the village of the San Domingo Pueblos. According to their 

     journals, leaders from seven different Pueblo groups meet in a council with Oñate. 

    The journals also says the tribal leaders pledge allegiance to Spain…1598

Travelers checks patented…1891

US annexes California…1846

US annexes Hawaii…1898

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

In their 80’s

Doc Severinsen, [Carl], bandleader/trumpeter on the Tonight Show is 86

In their 70’s

Ringo Starr, [Richard Starkey], Beatles drummer is 73

In their 60’s

Shelley Duvall, actress (Popeye, Faery Tale Theater) is 64

Under 30

Michele Kwan, figure skater (Oly-94, Oly-silver-98) is 33

Remembered for being born today

Joseph-Marie Jacquard, invented programmable loom [1752-1834]

Gustav Mahler, Austrian composer/conductor [1860-1911]

Joel Siegel, film critic [1943- 2007]

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           

Syd Barrett, original guitarist and vocalist of the band Pink Floyd…pancreatic cancer…2006…at 60

Keefe Brasselle, actor (Be Our Guest)…liver disease…1981…at 58

William Curtis, English botanist (Botanical Magazine), dies at 53

Arthur Conan Doyle, British writer (Sherlock Holmes)…heart attack…1930…at 71

Thomas Gray, English poet (Elegy) …1771…at 54

Allen Lane [Williams], English publisher (Penguin Books)…cancer…1970…at 67

Henri Nestlé, Founder of Nestlé S.A….heart attack…1890…at 75

Answer: Brain Teasers

1. Rod - Cane 2. Front - Face 3. Story - Tale 4. Die - Crash 5. Shelf - Sill

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  §