11/21/13

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Flagstaff Almanac:

Week: 47/ Day: 325   

Today: L 34°…H 44°… Ave. humidity: 75%

Wind: ave:   11mph; Gusts:  23mph  

Average Low: 21° Record Low: -5 ° (1979)

Average High: 49° Record High:  70° (1950)

Quote of the Day

 

Today’s Historical Highlights

1st flight of Concorde (London to New York)…1977

1st human cannonball, Emilio Onra, is shot…1871

1st US postage stamp in 2 colors (rotary process) introduced…1952

British Natural History Museum announces "Piltdown skull” was a hoax…1953

China prohibits opium trade…1906

Dallas' "Who Shot JR?" episode (Kristen) gets a 53.3 rating (83 mill)…1980

Fire at MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas kills 84…1980

Freedom of Information Act passed by Congress over Pres Ford's veto…1974

Harry Truman becomes 1st US president to travel in a submerged sub…1946

Jack Benny (violin) & Richard Nixon (piano) play their famed duet…1959

JFK flies to Texas…1963

Mayflower Compact signed by Pilgrims in Cape Cod…1620 

Spanish trader builds Fort Raymond at the confluence of Yellowstone and 

     Bighorn Rivers…1807

World's longest suspension bridge "Verrazano Narrows" opens (NYC)…1964

♫  Today’s Birthdays: ♫   

How many can you identify? Answers in Today’s Birthdays

 

My Free Rambling Thoughts   

Dr. sez things are going well for my latest cataract surgery. I say I am doing fine, too. I hung around the house all day as it is still a little bright to spend much time outside. Tomorrow everything should be back to normal. Things are a little blurry and now my glasses only make things worse in both eyes. New glasses in about a month.

 

Of course, all these drugs and change in sleeping habits the past few days messed up my body and I got to deal with my angio-edema (swollen lip) this afternoon. I caught it early, so should be OK in a couple of hours.

 

I remembered that I also had my South Africa trip on the old hard drive, so spent some time to find those pics. Found them all, moved them to the new-er computer. Then I decided it was time to put all the pictures on CD’s. With all my international travel, it took about two hours to make the disks, but now I have everything on my computer, and a back-up on discs. I have over 20 gigabytes of pictures total. That’s one heck of a lot of pictures. Of course I took all of them at the highest resolution available on my cameras. Amazed at how many pictures I actually have.

 

I have wanted to go to Burma/Miramar for quite some time. Ellie and Focus have set up a trip, but it will probably not happen…flight from Denver to Burma, one night there then a 16 day river cruise, then one night in some town, and a return flight to Denver would be almost $10K. That is way more than any of my other trips, and I just don’t think it is worth it. I’m sure there is lots to see, but I fear that the government is charging horrific prices for tour operators to come over there. Even though they have just recently opened to Western tourists and eased some of their stranglehold on their own countrymen, I’m just not ready to give that much money for a trip., In a few more years, I’m sure things will become a little more affordable.

 

Can’t believe a US Congressman pleads guilty to purchasing cocaine and gets a year probation and keeps his job. His excuse is that he is an alcoholic and that is what made him make such a stupid purchase. I’ve heard that twice this week…Toronto’s mayor said he was ‘really wasted’ when he was videotaped smoking cocaine. I’m all for forgiveness and second chances, but these two cases seem a little strange.

Game  Center (answers at the end of post)

Brain Teasers

Replace each word or words in parentheses with a one-word synonym to decipher a common phrase.

1. (Performances) (converse) (noisier) than (terms). 2. (More superior) (delayed) than (not at all). 3. (Sublime) (mental abilities) (contemplate) (similarly).

Lifestyle  Substance:     

Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

• Richard Nixon and Jack Benny play musical duet 1959

• Marlo Thomas discusses Ann Marie's look on "That Girl"-

• VINTAGE 1951 CARNATION CANNED MILK COMMERCIAL

• Dr. Burroughs Thanks Guests

Very Strange Laws…Oregon

• Dishes must drip dry.

• The “Peer Review Statute” prohibits you from finding out details of any written or oral discussion about yourmedical treatment.

• It is illegal to whisper “dirty” things in your lover’s ear during sex.

• Ice cream may not be eaten on Sundays.

• It is illegal to buy or sell marijuana, but it is legal to smoke it on your own property.

• One may not bathe without wearing “suitable clothing,” Canned corn is not to be used as bait for fishing.

• Drivers must yield to pedestrians who are standing on the sidewalk.

• One may not test their physical endurance while driving a car on a highway.

• It is illegal to place a container filled with human fecal matter on the side of any highway.

• Babies may not be carried on the running boards of a car.

• Drivers may not pump their own gas.

• A door on a car may not be left open longer than is necessary.

• An adult may not show a minor any piece of classical artwork which depicts sexual excitement.

• Eugene
--It is illegal to show movies or attend a car race on Sundays. /It is legal to conduct a horse race or a symphony concert.

• Hood River--Juggling is strictly prohibited without a license.

• Klamath River--It’s illegal to walk down a sidewalk and knock a snakes head off with your cane.

• Marion--You cannot eat a doughnut and walk backwards on a city street.

OK Then…

Harper’s Index 

Projected height in feet, of a Saudi skyscraper financed by the bin Laden family that will be the tallest in the world: 3,281000

Unusual Fact of the Day

The average album length has increased from 40 minutes in the LP era to well over an hour in the CD era. Most double-album LPs can fit onto a single CD.

Joke-of-the-day

Teacher: " George Washington not only chopped down his father's Cherry tree, but also admitted doing it. Now do you know why his father didn't punish him?"

One Student: " Because George still had the axe in is hand."

Rules of Thumb:   

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess

OFFERING HELP

Some people aren't really looking for help. If someone responds to three valid suggestions with a "yes, but..." he or she is more interested in playing games than solving problems.    

Yeah, It Really Happened

WAUKESHA, Wis. - Police in Wisconsin said a man called 911 to demand officers remove a snoring woman whose name he didn't know from his bed. Waukesha police said local man Benjamin Duddles called 911 around 4:21 a.m. Nov. 10 and said he needed officers to remove a woman who was "snoring like a train" in his bed, the Chicago Tribune reported Thursday. Duddles, who admitted he had been drinking, told the dispatcher he could not remember the woman's name and he had brought her home because they had been "talking." Duddles held the phone up in his bedroom to give a sample of the snoring sounds to the dispatcher, who sent officers to the home. The officers woke the woman, who told police she suffers from sleep apnea, a condition that can cause loud snoring. The police report said officers told Duddles they would not forcibly remove the woman from his apartment. "He was advised this was not a police matter because he allowed her in. He was provided the comfort of his couch for the evening and to work out the 'issue' in the morning," the report said.  

Somewhat Useless Information   

• In a period when there were no smartphones, soldiers from the U.S. invented a practical way to see pictures of their wives or girlfriends during the WWII. They used to put pictures on shaped pieces of plexiglass from downed planes into pistol grips.

• Through ‘Germanization’ the Nazis used to take Polish children, mentally bombing them with the racial superiority of the Germans and finally Germanize them. After the WWII only 10-15% did ever returned and in many cases they did not remember neither their biological parents nor their native language.

Calendar Information        

Happening This Week:

17-23: American Education Week / National Book Awareness Week

Today Is                                                                       

·        Alascattalo Day (About Alaska & humor)

·        Beaujolais Nouveau Day (used to see heavy marketing, with races to get the first bottles of wine to different markets around the globe)

·        Great American Smokeout

·        Use Less Stuff Day

·        World Hello Day

·        World Television Day

~~~~

·        US: North Carolina: Ratification Day (1789; 12^th state)

Today’s Events through History  

HMHS Britannic sinks in the Aegean Sea after a mine explodes, killing 30 people..1916
General Motors workers go on strike…1945

TV cameras permitted in British House of Commons…1989

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

Joseph Campanella, NYC, actor (Lou-Mannix) is 86

Marlo Thomas, [Mrs Phil Donahue], (That Girl!) is 76

Earl "the Pearl" Monroe, Phila Pa, NBA Guard (NY Knicks, Balt Bullets) is 69

Goldie Hawn, actress (Laugh-in, Private Benjamin) is 68

Nicollette Sheridan, Worthing England, actress (Desperate Housewives) is 50

Troy Aikman, NFL quarterback (Dallas Cowboys - Superbowl 1992) is 49

Remembered for being born today

Voltaire, [Francois-Marie Arouet], France, writer, essayist, philosopher, 

     playwright [1694- 1778]

Tom Horn, Old West lawman [18660-1903]

Stan Musial, outfielder (St Louis Cardinal, 7 times NL bat champ) [1920-2013]

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           

Margaret Taylor-Burroughs, American artist and writer…2010…@95

Harry Von Zell, TV announcer (Burns & Allen)…cancer…1981…@75

Robert Stroud, "bird man of Alcatraz"…in solitary…1963…@73

Florence Harding, American First Lady…renal failure…1924…@64  

Max Baer, US, heavyweight boxing champ (1934)…heart attack…1959…@49

Brain Teasers

1. Actions speak louder than words. 2. Better late than never. 3. Great minds think alike.

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  §