Thanksgiving 11/28/13

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Flagstaff Almanac:

Week: 48 / Day: 332   

Today: L 25°…H 39°… Ave. humidity: 69%

Wind: ave:   10mph; Gusts:  21mph  

Average Low: 19° Record Low:  -3° (1905)

Average High: 47° Record High:  68° (1980)

Quote of the Day

 

Today’s Historical Highlights

"Hopalong Cassidy" premieres on TV…1948

220 Indians, and 400 French attack the settlement attack Saratoga, NY…1745

America's 1st auto race starts; 6 cars, 55 miles, winner avg 7 MPH…1895

Arthur Griffith forms Sinn Fein in Dublin…1905

Confederate congress officially admits Missouri to Confederacy…1861 

Dutch army stops Chinese uprising in Borneo…1854

Grand Ole Opry premieres as WSM Barn Dance on WSM radio Nashville Tn…1925

Groucho Marx performed on radio for 1st time…1932

Margaret Thatcher resigns as Britain's PM, replaced by John Major…1990

Norway votes against joining European Union…1994

Olympia forms as capital of Washington Territory…1853

Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci flees to Hungary…1989

The 1st pulsating radio source (pulsar) detected…1967

♫  Today’s Birthdays: ♫   

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

 

My Free Rambling Thoughts   

Good report from the eye doc on my second eye. Things are going as planned. I go in on the 19^th to get a new glasses script. I broke down and bought some ‘reading glasses’ for $10. They magnify nicely and make reading the paper a joy again. Of course I can’t watch TV with them, so it’s the old off and on thing, but I’ll survive for a few weeks.

 

I am very thankful on this Thanksgiving…for my family, my friends, my good fortune, my many exciting travel adventures, modern medicine which always seems to fix whatever is wrong.

 

While I am sure there will be nice sales on Thanksgiving Day, you won’t find me at a store. It is not fair that these low wage employees can’t spend their time with family on this day. Some stores are actually open all day Thanksgiving. Just crazy. From what I understand, working the holiday is not a choice, but a mandate from many corporations. I sure hope those multi-millionaire CEO’s who opened their stores on Thanksgiving are also working all day on that day….counting their money and not celebrating with their family. What’s good for the goose…

 Game  Center (answers at the end of post)

Brain Teasers

I am tied up at least once a day And forced to carry ten nails. I work diligently without any pay And follow your many trails.

I do not smell very well But at least I have many eyes. I have two tongues but never yell And I'll bet you know my size.
What am I?

Lifestyle  Substance:     

Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

• William Blake

• Tribute to the great Leslie Nielsen

• Clip from "The Garry Moore Show"

• Auntie Mame with Rosalind Russell

• Jon Stewart's Best Moments of 2012

Very Strange Laws…Arkansas

• It’s strictly prohibited to pronounce “Arkansas” incorrectly

• The Arkansas River can rise no higher than to the Main Street bridge in Little Rock.

• A law provides that school teachers who bob their hair will not get a raise.

• A man can legally beat his wife, but not more than once a month.

• Oral sex is considered to be sodomy.

• Alligators may not be kept in bathtubs.

• Fayetteville--It is illegal to kill “any living creature”.

• Little Rock--Honking one’s car horn at a sandwich shop after 9 PM is against the law. \  No one may “suddenly start or stop” their car at a McDonald’s. \ Dogs may not bark after 6 PM. \ Flirtation between men and women on the streets of Little Rock may result in a 30-day jail term. \ It is unlawful to walk one’s cow down Main Street after 1:00 PM on Sunday.

OK Then…

Harper’s Index 

• Percentage change in NY’s state prison population since 1999: -25

• Din the state’s violent crime rate over that time: -31

Unusual Fact of the Day

Tom Selleck was tapped to play Indiana Jones, but due to a contracted commitment to Magnum PI, he decided to do the honorable thing and keep the agreement. Ironically, an ensuing writers strike delayed production long enough that he could have acted in Indiana Jones.

Joke-of-the-day

Only in America...can a pizza get to your house faster than an ambulance.
... are there handicap parking places in front of a skating rink.
... do drugstores make the sick walk all the way to the back of the store to get their prescriptions while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front.
... do people order double cheese burgers, large fries, and a diet Coke.
... do banks leave both doors to the vault open and then chain the pens to the counters.
... do they leave cars worth thousands of dollars in the driveway and put our useless junk in the garage.
... do they use answering machines to screen calls and then have call waiting so they won't miss a call from someone they didn't want to talk to in the first place.
... do they buy hot dogs in packages of ten and buns in packages of eight.
... do they use the word "politics" to describe the process so well; "Poli" in Latin meaning "many" and "tics" meaning "bloodsucking creatures".
... do they have drive-up ATM machines with Braille lettering

Rules of Thumb:   

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess

SELLING AND TALKING

The sale is made while the customer is talking.    

Yeah, It Really Happened

• PARIS - Global ocean acidity may increase by 170 percent by the end of the century, bringing significant economic losses, experts conclude in an international report. The group of experts has agreed on "levels of confidence" in relation to ocean acidification statements from the world's largest gathering of experts on ocean acidification ever convened, the International Council for Science reported from its Paris headquarters Thursday. "What we can now say with high levels of confidence about ocean acidification sends a clear message," Ulf Riebesell of the GEOMAR Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research in Kiel, Germany, said. "Globally we have to be prepared for significant economic and ecosystem service losses." Marine ecosystems and biodiversity are likely to change as a result of ocean acidification, with far-reaching consequences for society, the experts agreed. If society's high emissions are not curbed, cold-water coral reefs located in the deep sea may be unsustainable and tropical coral reef erosion is likely to outpace reef building this century, the experts said. However, they said, significant emissions reductions could ensure that half of surface waters presently occupied by tropical coral reefs remain favorable for their growth. Threats to ocean health would still remain, said report author Wendy Broadgate, Deputy Director at the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program. "Emissions reductions may protect some reefs and marine organisms but we know that the ocean is subject to many other stresses such as warming, deoxygenation, pollution and overfishing," 

• she said. 

• "Reducing other stressors such as pollution and overfishing, and the introduction of large scale marine protected areas, may help build some resilience to ocean acidification."  

• Somewhat Useless Information   

• The first American Thanksgiving was celebrated in 1621, to commemorate the harvest reaped by the Plymouth Colony after a harsh winter. In that year Governor William Bradford proclaimed a day of thanksgiving. The colonists celebrated it as a traditional English harvest feast, to which they invited the local Wampanoag Indians. 

• Days of thanksgiving were celebrated throughout the colonies after fall harvests. All thirteen colonies did not, however, celebrate Thanksgiving at the same time until October 1777. George Washington was the first president to declare the holiday, in 1789.

• By the mid-1800s, many states observed a Thanksgiving holiday. Meanwhile, the poet and editor Sarah J. Hale had begun lobbying for a national Thanksgiving holiday. During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln, looking for ways to unite the nation, discussed the subject with Hale. In 1863 he gave his Thanksgiving Proclamation, declaring the last Thursday in November a day of thanksgiving. 

• In 1939, 1940, and 1941 Franklin D. Roosevelt, seeking to lengthen the Christmas shopping season, proclaimed Thanksgiving the third Thursday in November. Controversy followed, and Congress passed a joint resolution in 1941 decreeing that Thanksgiving should fall on the fourth Thursday of November, where it remains.

• At one time, the turkey and the bald eagle were each considered as the national symbol of America. Benjamin Franklin was one of those who argued passionately on behalf of the turkey.

• The Native American name for turkey is 'firkee'; some say this is how turkeys got their name. Some people believe Christopher Columbus thought that the land he discovered was connected to India, and believed the bird he discovered (the turkey) was a type of peacock. He therefore called it 'tuka,' which is 'peacock' in Tamil, an Indian language.

Calendar Information        

Happening This Week:

22-28: National Farm-City Week
24-30: Better Conversation Week / Church-State Separation Week / National Bible Week / National Family Week  /National Game & Puzzle Week

Today Is                                                                      

·        National Day of Mourning—day of protest by some Native Americans (especially in East)

·        Thanksgiving Day

·        Turkey-free Thanksgiving

~~~~~

·        Albania: Independence Day (1912 from Ottoman Empire)

·        Chad: Republic Day (1960)

·        Hawaii: Independence Day (1843-UK and France recognize as independent country)

·        Jewish Religion: Hanukah  begins at sunset

·        Mauritania: Independence Day (1960 from France)

·        Panama: Independence Day (1821 from Spain)

Today’s Events through History  

1st Polaroid camera sold…1948

Ferdinand Magellan begins crossing Pacific Ocean…1520

Natchez Indians massacre 138 Frenchmen near modern-day Natchez, Mississippi…1729

Royal Society forms in London…1660

US-born Lady Astor elected 1st female member of British Parliament…1919

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

Berry Gordy, record company owner (Motown) is 84

Gary Hart, Sen-Co, 1975-86) is 77

Randy Newman, vocalist (Short People) is 70

Paul Shaffer, band leader (David Letterman) is 64

Ed Harris, actor (Right Stuff, Swing Shift, Walker, Coma) is 63

S Epatha Merkerson, actress (Jacob's Ladder, Terminator 2) is 61

Judd Nelson, actor (Breakfast Club, Jack-Suddenly Susan) is 54

Jon Stewart, comedian (Daily Show) is 51

Remembered for being born today

Margaret Tudor, wife of James IV of Scotland [1489-1541]

William Blake, poet/painter (Songs of Innocence & Experience) [1757-1827]

Friedrich Engels, Germany, social philosopher; Marx's collaborator [1820-1895]

John Wesley Hyatt, inventor (celluloid) [1837-1920]

Hope Lange, actress (Ghost & Mrs Muir) [1933-2003]

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           

Leslie Nielsen, Canadian actor (Airplane)…2010…@84

James Naismith, creator of basketball…stroke…1939…@78

Garry Moore, TV host (I've Got A Secret)…emphysema…1993…@78

Washington Irving, author (Legend of Sleepy Hollow)…heart attack…1859…@76

Rosalind Russell, actress (Mame)…cancer…1976…@68

Enrico Fermi, Italian/US physicist (Nobel 1938)…cancer…1954…@53

Jeffrey Dahmer, [Butcher of Milwaukee], killer…killed in prison…1994…@34

Brain Teasers

Your shoes!

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  §