9/14/13

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Almanac: Flagstaff:  Week: 37/ Day: 257   

Today: H 73°…L 46°…Ave. humidity:  64%

Wind: ave:   3mph; Gusts:  10mph  

Average Low: 43°

Average High: 74°

Record Low: 26 (1952)

Record High: 89° (1990)

Quote of the Day

Today’s Historical Highlights

1st broadcast of "60 Minutes" on CBS-TV…1968

1st lighthouse in American colonies lit (Boston Harbor)…1716

1st prefrontal lobotomy performed, Washington DC…1956

2 billion board feet of lumber destroyed in Tillamook Oregon fire…1933

Bishop Gore School, one of the oldest schools in Wales, founded…1682

Francis Scott Key inspired to write "Star-Spangled Banner"…1814

Golf's 1st recorded hole-in-one (Tom Morris at Prestwick's 8th hole)…1868

Ground breaking ceremony for UN world headquarters…1948

Ken Griffey, Sr & Jr, hit back-to-back HRs in 1st inning…1990

Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) forms…1960

Soviet Union's Luna-2 is 1st spacecraft to land on the Moon…1959

♫  Today’s Birthdays: ♫   

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

My Free Rambling Thoughts   

So I go to pick up my scripts at CVS at 11:45…the machine said they would be ready at 11:00. ‘Sorry, we don’t have one of your scripts.’ ‘Why didn’t you call and tell me?’ ‘We were busy’. ‘The truck will be in this afternoon and should be ready about 3pm.’ ‘Can I see the manager?’ ‘I’m not the manager but I can help you.’ ‘Why didn’t you call?’ ‘Oh, the truck just came in. We will have to go through the 12 crates but will do that right now.’  ‘I’ll come back tomorrow.’ Then at 1:45 they all my house to say they have been going through the crates and still haven’t found my script. Now my new question is how can 12 crates come in and the non-pharmacy staff can go through all the crates, including the medicine that requires a script along with all the soap, liquor, and cosmetics?...doesn’t sound like a sound business practice. Seems to me the medicine should be in one or two crates marked ‘Pharmacy ONLY’. Right now I’m picturing a big warehouse will everything that goes to the store on alphabetical shelves, with codeine right next to coffee, and valium right next to vodka. Hmmm.

 

We had a nice weather day with a few clouds, a coolish breeze, and no moisture. Nice.

 

I finally got a call from the tour operator for my trip to Cuba. For some unknown reason to me, it is cheaper to fly from Phoenix to Denver to Miami than it is to fly from Phoenix to Miami. The airlines give a good deal to tours…with the cost from Denver to Miami is about $300 whereas they won’t give me a break so the Phoenix to Miami flight is $480. Whatever! I checked the flights from Phoenix to Miami and the cheapest one I could find was $625, so it is a better deal for the tour people. No way to avoid an overnight stay both ways somewhere. Either in Denver to make the Miami flight, or leaving Phoenix at 5:30a…on the trip back same thing…arrive in Phoenix at 8:45p and wait for the earliest shuttle at 6:30a.

Game  Center (answers at the end of post)

Brain Teasers

Find an anagram for the words in Group A. The anagram will answer one of the clues in Group B.

Group A 1. Dover 2. Quale 3. Harpo 4. Shore 5. Canoe 6. Rebut

Group B

A. Took the wheel B. Pacific or Indian C. Root veggie D. Fifty-fifty E. Thoroughbred F. Book Club personality

Lifestyle  Substance:     

Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

• Dirty Dancing - Time of my Life (Final Dance)

• 1967 Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

• 200 Years - Henry Gibson Patriotic Country Song

• WHEATIES CEREAL COMMERCIAL 1950s

• Sha Na Na ~Runaround Sue

Hmmmm…Fearsome Phobias
If you have an irrational fear of... Closed spacesYou're suffering from... Claustrophobia: Latin claustrum "a shut in place," from claudere "to close"

If you have an irrational fear of... Clothing

You're suffering from... Vestiophobia: Latin vestimenta meaning covering the body or clothes

It is Illegal…

It is Illegal to walk across a street on your hands in Connecticut

Privileges granted to people in the U.S. (and many western nations) for being Christian…

You can travel to any part of the country and know your religion will be accepted, safe, and you will have access to religious spaces to practice your faith.

Ok, then?

Harper’s Index    

Chances that a Russian supports changing St. Petersburg’s name back to Leningrad: 1 in 3

Unusual Fact of the Day

Olympus Mons on Mars is the tallest known volcanic mountain in our solar system. 14 miles in height!

Animals with the strongest jaws…

Jaguar 2000 psi

The jaguar has the strongest bite force of any cat, and by my findings, the strongest bite of any mammal. The real king of the jungle, the jaguar is found from Mexico to Argentina. The jaguar kills by biting the head of its prey. Like most other big cats (except the lion) the jaguar is a solitary killer. The jaguar is renowned to for its ability to successfully kill anacondas and caimans. Its bite is so strong it can easily pierce through the shell of animals, like turtles. The jaguar comes from the Amerindian word Yaguar which means “he who kills with one leap.” Despite being smaller than its cousins in Africa and Asia, it is still the biggest cat in the Americas. Believed to have been eliminated from the southern United States over 100 years ago, there are rumors of a breeding population in Arizona. Jaguars are believed to be most numerous in Belize, specifically the jaguar sanctuary in Cockscomb Basin.

Joke-of-the-day

A man and an ostrich walk into a restaurant. The waitress asks, "What will it be?"

The man replied "a burger and a coke." "And you?" "I'll have the same," the ostrich replies. They finish their meal and pay. "That will be $4.50," The man reached into his pocket and pulled out the exact amount. They do this every day till Fri.

"The usual?" she asked. "No, today is Friday. I'll have steak and a coke."

"Me too." says the ostrich. They finish and pay. "That will be $10.95"

The man reached in and pulls out the exact amount again just like all week.

The waitress was dumb-founded. "How is it that you always have the exact amount?"

"Well," says the man. "I was cleaning my attic and I found a dusty lamp. I rubbed it and a genie appeared."

“Wow!" said the waitress. "What did you wish for?"

"I asked that when I needed to pay for something, the exact amount would appear in my pocket." "Amazing! Most people would ask for a million dollars. But what's with the ostrich?"

"Well," said the man. "I also asked for a chick with long legs."

Rules of Thumb:   

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess

ESTIMATING THE CONSTRUCTION COSTS

In construction, you'll spend one dollar on labor for every one dollar you spend on materials.   

Yeah, It Really Happened

HANOVER, N.H. - U.S. researchers say they've linked a cosmic impact in Canada 12,900 years ago to a global climate shift that wiped out many of the planet's large mammals. Scientists at Dartmouth College said the cataclysmic event may have prompted humans to start gathering and growing some of their food rather than solely hunting big game. The impact of an asteroid or comet at the beginning of the Younger Dryas period marks an abrupt global change to a colder, dryer climate with far-reaching effects on both animals and humans, they said. In North America large animals including mastodons, camels, giant ground sloths and saber-toothed cats vanished, the researchers said, and their human hunters, the Clovis people, set aside their hunting spears and turned to a hunter-gatherer subsistence diet of roots, berries and smaller game. "The Younger Dryas cooling impacted human history in a profound manner," researcher Mukul Sharma said. The assumption of a cosmic impact goes against the prevailing view that the Younger Dryas cooling period was due to a change in ocean currents that kept warm tropical waters from moving northward. Sharma and his colleagues argue analysis of spherules -- droplets of solidified molten rock expelled by the impact of a comet or meteor -- at Younger Dryas boundary later sites in Pennsylvania and New Jersey are identical to rock found in southern Quebec, where Sharma and his colleagues say they believe the impact took place. "We have for the first time narrowed down the region where a Younger Dryas impact did take place," Sharma says, "even though we have not yet found its crater." "It may well have taken multiple concurrent impacts to bring about the extensive environmental changes of the Younger Dryas," he said. "However, to date no impact craters have been found and our research will help track one of them down."

Somewhat Useless Information   

• September is the ninth month and the only month with the same number of letters in its name in English as the number of the month.

• In 1752 in Britain, September had only 19 days as we changed from Julian to Gregorian calendar.

• The only US president to have had a September birthday was William Taft (president 1909-13).

• In America, the first Sunday after the first Monday in September is celebrated as National Grandparents' Day.

• The last day of September in any year always falls on a different day of the week from the last day of any other month.

• At least six films have had the title 'September', which is more than any other month.

Calendar Information        

Happening This Week:

8th-15th

International Housekeepers Week
National Assisted Living Week 
National Historically Black Colleges & Universities Week
Substitute Teacher Appreciation Week 

Suicide Prevention Week

9th-14^th

Line Dance Week

12th-15th

Hummingbird Celebration

Today Is                                                                      

·        Farmers' Consumer Awareness Day

·        National Cream Filled Donut Day

~~~~

·        Nicaragua~~Battle of San Jacinto Day (1856)

Today’s Events through History  

"Waltons" TV program premieres…1972

Britain (and American colonies) adopt Gregorian calendar…1752

Chubby Checker's "Twist" hits #1…1960

First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill visits Scapa Flow, Orkney…1939

George K Anderson patents typewriter ribbon…1886

Mother Elizabeth Seton canonized as 1st US-born saint by Pope Paul VI…1975

Rembrandts "Nightwatch" slashed & damaged in Amsterdam…1975

Spanish Governor Galvez issues an act, in New Orleans. He orders the military, 

     and Spanish subjects to "respect the rights of these Indians in the lands they 

     occupy and to protect them in the possession thereof."…1777

Today’s Birthdays                                                            

Walter Koenig, actor (Checkov-Star Trek) is 77

Jon "Bowser" Bauman, singer (Sha Na Na) is 67
Sam Neill, Northern Ireland, actor (Jurassic Park, Dead Calm, Piano) is 66

Faith Ford, actress (Another World, Corky-Murphy Brown) is 49

Remembered for being born today

Margaret Sanger, feminist/nurse/birth control proponent [1879-1966]

Albert Shanker, American labor leader (Amer Fed of Teachers) [1928-1997]

Clayton Moore, actor Lone Ranger [1914-1999]

Amy Winehouse, London, singer ("Stronger Than Me, Rehab) [1983-2011]

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           

James Fenimore Cooper, prolific author…dropsy…1851…@61

Isadora Duncan..her scarf entangled in her car's wheel…1927…@50

Janet Gaynor, actress (Sunrise)…a traffic accident…1984…@77

Henry Gibson, actor (Laugh-In]/songwriter…cancer…2009…@73

Grace Kelly, princess of Monaco…car crash…1982…@52

William McKinley, 25^th US President…gunshot wounds…1901…@58

Jody Powell, press secretary to Jimmy Carter…heart attack…2009...@65

Beah Richards, actress (Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner)…2000…@80

Patrick Swayze, actor, dancer, and songwriter…cancer…2009…@57

Brain Teasers

1. Drove (a) 2. Equal (d) 3. Oprah (f) 4. Horse (e) 5. Ocean (b) 6. Tuber (c)

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  §