11/5/13

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Flagstaff Almanac:

Week: 45/ Day: 309   

Today: L 21°…H 51°… Ave. humidity: 50%

Wind: ave:   10mph; Gusts:  31mph  

Average Low: 25° Record Low:  1° (1922)

Average High: 55° Record High:  70° (1976)

Quote of the Day

 

Today’s Historical Highlights

1st post office in the colonies is set up in Massachusetts…1639

1st US patent granted for auto (George B Selden) for gasoline driven car…1895

Arizona, Kansas & Wisconsin vote for female suffrage…1912

Bobby Fisher beats Boris Spassky to with Chess title in Belgrade…1992

China's first lunar satellite, Chang'e 1 goes into orbit around the Moon…2007

Christopher Columbus learns of maize (corn) from Indians of Cuba…1492

Ella Grasso (Ct) elected 1st woman US gov not related to previous governor…1974

Gunpowder Plot; attempt to blow up English Parliament uncovered; Guy Fawkes 

    tortured…1605

Iceberg twice size of Rhode Island sighted in Antarctic…1987

Nobel for literature awarded to Sinclair Lewis for "Babbitt"…1930

Saddam Hussein, former president of Iraq, sentenced to death…2006

US state Utah accepts female suffrage…1895

Vatican bombed…1943

Widespread flooding in Nigeria kills 363 people and displaces 2.1 million…2012

♫  Today’s Birthdays: ♫   

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

 

My Free Rambling Thoughts   

A good Monday. About 4 years ago, my motherboard died. I saved the hard drive but have been unable to really find stuff on it, since the old hard drive was Windows 95 and the new computer was Windows7. I had been unable to find my pictures of Scotland and Egypt—my first international trips. I thought I had made a CD for each trip or put the files on a flash drive. Couldn’t ever find either one. I would check around about once a year and just get frustrated and stop looking. I always had other’s pictures to look at, thanks to Ellie and her ‘picture parties’ when everyone shares their discs. It just wasn’t the same as my own pics. Well today I searched that old hard drive again and found both folders… not under Egypt or Scotland, but under Trips. I should point out that every time I looked for the photos, I had to do a name search for the folder. For some reason, nothing else worked. I moved the files to the computer I’m using and spent part of the morning enjoying the two trips. Even better I can now make each folder as my background setting so that they rotate thru whenever I have the computer on. Life is good. I now have 22GB of pictures on this computer. That’s a lot of travel shots, but when looking at them, I’m right back on the trip.

 

Democracy is a tough road for any people who are trying to live in it. While I understand that Morsi was not a good leader in Egypt, he was the elected President. I get what he was yelling at his trial today. He was not a good leader, and probably doesn’t believe in democracy, but closing the court proceedings and moving the next date to January is not the answer. It is a tough time for the people of Egypt and only hope they are able to work through these growing pains. Historically many dictators never make it to any kind of trial as they are either assassinated or commit suicide. Morsi deserves a fair trial.

Game  Center (answers at the end of post)

Brain Teasers

In each group below, I have listed four (4) unrelated words. Your job is to try and find a word that can either precede or follow each word in each group.
Example: picture, inner, top, test: Answer: picture TUBE, inner TUBE, TUBE top, test TUBE. 

1. sky, point, hat, knee 2. street, fight, pedal, off 3. shoe, french, powder, rims 4. molding, roast, triple, jewels

Lifestyle  Substance:     

Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

• Roy Rogers sings "DON'T FENCE ME IN"

• 1959 CAR COMMERCIAL WITH WARD BOND

• Johnny Horton - When It's Springtime In Alaska

• Ballad of the Green Berets - [HD] - - - SSGT Barry SADLER

 Very Strange Laws…

• Birds have the right of way on all highways.
• A husband is responsible for every criminal act committed by his wife while she is in his presence.
• It is a felony to persistently tread on the cracks between paving stones on the sidewalk of a state highway.
• It’s legal for restaurants to serve wine with meals, but only if you ask for the wine list.
• It is considered an offense to hunt whales.
• No one may have sex in the back of an ambulance if it is responding to an emergency call.
• It is against the law to fish from horseback.
• It is illegal not to drink milk.
• It is illegal to detonate any nuclear weapon.
• Alcohol may not be sold during an emergency.
• Individuals may not possess beer in containers larger than two liters unless they are a retailer.
• Boxing matches that allow biting are not allowed.
• It is illegal to cause a catastrophe.
• Kaysville: You must have identification to enter a convienence store after dark.
• Logan: Women may not swear.
• Monroe: Daylight must be visible between partners on a dance floor.
• Provo: Throwing snowballs will result in a $50 fine.

OK Then…

 

Harper’s Index 

Amount of the signing bonus the US Army is offering psychiatrists will to serve for 4 years: $271,000

Unusual Fact of the Day

Goosebumps are actually caused by a muscle. It is called the arrector pili muscle.

Joke-of-the-day

Q: What do you call a midget fortuneteller on the run from the law? A: A small medium at large.

Rules of Thumb:   

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess

RIDING A MOTORCYCLE

New motorcyclists get cocky and reckless when they've put 3,000 miles--or the equivalent of one trip across the United States--on their bikes.    

Yeah, It Really Happened

HARTFORD, Conn. - Connecticut Lottery officials said more than 1,520 people won prize money by playing the number 666 in the Play3 Night drawing. Officials said the prizes are based on the amount wagered by the players, so the payouts from Monday night's drawing will vary from $25 up to $2,500, WFSB-TV, Hartford, Conn., reported Thursday. "Since the Play3 Night game began, 6-6-6 has been drawn a total of nine times in the nightly drawing with the last combination being picked on March 22, 1995," said Anne Noble, president and chief executive officer of the CT Lottery. "It's always fun and exciting when a triple single digit is drawn because so many people are particularly fond of playing these numbers." 

Somewhat Useless Information   

• Cats cannot taste things that are sweet. The taste buds of a cat cannot detect sugar.

• Originally kitty litter was made from sand, but in 1948 it was discovered that clay was more absorbent.

• A cat's collarbone does not connect to any other bones but instead sits buried in muscle. This makes it easier for them to squeeze through tight spots.

• Cats are able to see in the dark. They see at one-sixth the light level required for human vision.

• Cats purr at the same frequency as an idling diesel engine. This is around 26 purrs per second.

• Cats use whiskers to gauge whether or not they can fit through an opening.

Calendar Information        

Happening This Week:

1-7: National Fig Week / National Patient Accessibility Week / World Communication Week
3-9:  Health Information and Technology Week / International Fraud Awareness Week / National Animal Shelter Appreciation Week / National Nurse Practioner's Week / National Radiologic Technology Week / Give Wildlife A Brake! Week / Intimate Apparel Week

Today Is                                                                      

·        Election Day

·        El Salvador: Day of the First Shout for Freedom (1811)

·        England: Guy Fawkes Day (1605)

Today’s Events through History  

1781 - John Hanson elected 1st "President of US in Congress assembled"

1872 - Ulysses S. Grant re-elected US president

1912 - Woodrow Wilson (D) defeats Theodore Roosevelt (Prog) & Pres Taft (R)

1940 - Pres FDR (D) wins unprecedented 3rd term beating Wendell Willkie (R)

1968 - Nixon (R) beats VP Humphrey (D) & George C Wallace for presidency

~~~~~~

Buchanan v Warley strikes down Lousiville Ky ordiance requiring blacks & whites to 

     live in separate areas…1917

El Salvador's 1st battle against Spain for independence…1811

John F Kennedy (D-Mass) elected to House of Representatives…1946

Parker Brothers launches game of Monopoly…1935

Publication of the Catholicon in Treguier (Brittany). Breton-French-Latin dictionary…1499

US launches Mariner 3 toward Mars; no data returned…1964

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

Elke Sommer, [Elke Schletz], actress (A Shot in the Dark, The Oscar) is 73

Art Garfunkel, singer/actor (Sounds of Silence) is 72

Bill Walton, NBA center (Portland Trailblazers, Boston Celtics) is 61

Kris Jenner, reality TV is 58

Tatum O'Neal, Mrs John McEnroe, actress (Paper Moon, Little Darlings) is 50

Remembered for being born today

Ida Tarbell, muckraker (Standard Oil was very unhappy) [1857-1944]

Vivien Leigh, (Gone With Wind) [1913-1967]

John McGiver, actor (Patty Duke Show, Jimmy Stewart Show) [1913-1975]

Will Durant, US, author/historian (Story of Civilization) [1885-1981]

Joel McCrea, actor (Marshal-Wichita Town) [1905-1990]

Roy Rogers (Leonard Slye), cowboy (Happy Trails, Roy Rogers Show) [1911-1998]

Strom Thurmond, Senator SC  [1902-2003]

Ike Turner, AKA Mr Tina Turner!, guitarist (A Fool in Love) [1931-2007]

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           

Fred MacMurray, actor (My Three Sons)…1991…@83

Guy Lombardo, orchestra leader (Auld Lang Syne)…heart attack…1977…@75

Al Capp, US cartoonist (Li'l Abner)… emphysema…1979…@70

Jill Clayburgh, actress… leukemia…2010…@66

Ward Bond, actor (Wagon Train)…heart attack…1960…@57

Barry Sadler, singer (Green Berets)…murdered…1989…@49

James Clerk Maxwell, Scotish physicist (speed of light)…cancer…1879…@48

Johnny Horton, country singer…auto accident…1960…@33

Brain Teasers

1. sky HIGH, HIGH point, HIGH hat, knee HIGH 2. BACK street, fight BACK, BACK pedal, BACK off 3. shoe HORN, french HORN, powder HORN, HORN rims 4. CROWN molding, CROWN roast, triple CROWN, CROWN jewels

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  §