7/20/13

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Almanac: Flagstaff:  Week: 29/ Day: 201   Today: H 79°…L 55°

Wind: ave:   3mph; Gusts:  16mph  Ave. humidity:  69%

* Average Low Average High Record Low Record High

     51°                   82°                   42° (1940)      91° (1939)

Quote of the Day

Today’s Historical Highlights

1st men on the Moon, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin Jr. from Apollo 11…1969

1st surfin' record to go #1-Jan & Dean's "Surf City"…1964

British Columbia joins the confederation of Canada…1871

Canada becomes the 4th country to legalize same-sex marriage…2005

Charles Lindbergh begins NY flight (Spirit of St Louis)…1927

CIA releases documents under the Freedom of Information Act revealing it had 

       engaged in mind control experiments…1977

Fee 1st charged to see a baseball game (50 cents) (NY beats Bkln 22-18)…1858

Scottish settlers arrive at Pictou, Nova Scotia (Canada)…1773

Sioux Indian Chief Sitting Bull, surrenders to federal troops…1881

Terrorist Carlos the Jackal sues France in the European Court of Human Rights 

       for allegedly torturing him…2000

USSR recovered 2 dogs; 1st living organisms to return from space…1960

Vatican state secretary Pacelli (Pius XII) signs accord with Hitler…1933

Wars of Scottish Independence: Fall of Stirling Castle - King Edward I of England 

       takes the last rebel stronghold of the war…1304

♫  Today’s Birthdays: ♫   

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

My Free Rambling Thoughts   

I got a very sad email today. One of the travelers from our Focus Group passed away last night while they were with Focus at Macho Picchu waiting for a train. I first met Nancy and her husband Ed on a trip years ago. Turned out she had been a teacher at my Elementary school. She had started there the year I was in 6^th grade and taught 4^th grade. Our last trip was in Uganda last year. She and her loving husband were great traveling partners. They were always friendly and on several trips we shared a vehicle on our trips around Africa, meaning that we were in a small vehicle for up to 8 hours a day. She was a great spotter of wild animals but could never actually identify what the animal was. Her best line ‘over there at 2:00 is a brown animal’ or ‘in that tree at 11:00 is a bird’. Even after the others spotted the elephant or eagle, the next time she would see another animal, it was never ‘an elephant at 9:00’…it was always…’a brown animal at 9:00’. She will be missed by many and as sad as this day is for her family and her many friends…she was doing what she loved and didn’t suffer.  

 

So Detroit is bankrupt. Their local government says they will be coming back. Such an amazing history. It has been around since 1701 and as listed as Michigan’s most populous metro city. The Motor City—Motown—brought our country cars, trucks, and great music. Things have been on the decline for some time. As the population declined, so did city services to those who remained, and the crime rate skyrocketed. From what I have heard, the saddest part of this bankruptcy is that the civil servants who worked for the city and are now retired are losing their pensions…or having their pensions dropped to ten cents on the dollar. How devastating for the elderly.

 

Today is Carlos Santana’s birthday. I remember going to a concert in Denver where Crosby, Stills, and Nash were the headliners and Santana was the warm up group. The crowd really enjoyed Santana, who at the time had no hits on the radio and gave them several standing ovations. Crosby Stills and Nash came out and while we enjoyed their music, they were a studio band and their live performance was not that great. After a couple of their songs, the crowd started yelling for Santana to come back out. It didn’t happen, and after a brief stop in the music, Crosby, Stills and Nash continued. A night to remember!

Game  Center (answers at the end of post)

Brain Teasers

Your task here is to change one letter in each of the following words, in order to find three (3) words with a common theme.

STEER CRASS PESTER

Lifestyle  Substance:     

Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

• Carlos Santana - Oye Como Va

• Sir Edmund Hillary on Omnibus in 1954

• Bruce Lee - His Own Words (Part 1)

• Apolo Anton Ohno & Julianne – Samba

Hmmmm…Oxymorons

Taped live Terribly pleased Tight slacks

Ok, then?

Harper’s Index    

• Profits earned by Facebook last year: $1,100,000,000

• Tax refund the company received from the Federal Government: $429,000,000

Picture of the Day: Hybrid Animals

Unusual Fact of the Day

Botanically, apples, peaches, grapes, and tomatoes are all fruits. But don’t try telling that to the U.S. Supreme Court. Per the 1893 case Nix v. Hedden, the court decided that tomatoes were veggies and therefore subject to the vegetable tariff. The Supreme Court’s reasoning? Tomatoes have to be vegetables because they’re usually served with dinner, not dessert.

Joke-of-the-day

Things to do @ Wal-Mart while the significant other is taking his/her sweet time:

1. Get cans of cat food and randomly put them in people's carts when they don't realize it.

2. Set all the alarm clocks to go off at ten minute intervals throughout the day.

3. Make a trail of orange juice on the floor leading to the rest rooms.

4. Walk up to an employee and tell him in an official tone, "I think we've got a Code 3 in housewares," and see what happens.

5. Tune all the radios to a polka station; then turn them all off and turn the volumes to "10."

6. Challenge other customers to duels with tubes of gift wrap.

7. Put M&M's on layaway.

8. Move "Caution: Wet Floor" signs to carpeted areas.

9. Set up a tent in the camping department; tell others you'll only invite them in if they bring pillows from Bed and Bath.

10. When someone asks if you need help, begin to cry and ask, "Why won't you people just leave me alone?"  

Rules of Thumb:   

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess

SNOWMOBILING ALONE

 When snowmobiling alone do not travel further into the woods than you can walk out.    

Yeah, It Really Happened

In the movie "The Burning Bed" Farrah Fawcett's husband repeatedly beats and psychologically abuses her, so she waits until he passes out drunk and then sets fire to their bed.

In this story the part of Farrah Fawcett is played by 43-year-old Connecticut woman Jill Defusco, and the catalyst is an argument over a pizza...but the rest of the story is very similar.

Police arrested Defusco for setting a fire in the bedroom while her husband was sleeping.

The husband told police that he went to bed after getting into an argument with his wife over pizza and woke up to find his side of the bed on fire. He jumped up, put the fire out and called police.

Police said Jill lit a greeting card on fire, which then ignited a pair of shorts. Mrs. Defusco told police she set an anniversary card on fire and said it was "symbolic" of their marriage after her husband threw jelly beans at her.

Somewhat Useless Information   

• A Roman numeral added to a name to indicate its order in succession, as in England's kings George I, George II, and George III, is known as an ordinal.

• The famous Mark VII Limited productions logo was made by a man's hands hammering a metal stamp with the number "VII." The hands holding the hammer and stamp are those of the production company's founder, Dragnet star Jack Webb.

• Some retailers ran into problems stocking clothing to promote the 2006 Super Bowl. The Roman numerals attached to the proper name of the event - Super Bowl XL - created confusion for those who mistook the letters as an abbreviation for "extra large." 

• Many clocks depicting Roman numerals show the number four as "IIII" instead of "IV." Historians are divided on how this tradition developed, blaming it on everything from the desires of King Louis XIV to better symmetry on the clock's face.

• A bar placed on top of a letter or string of letters increases the numeral's value by 1,000 times.

• The symbol "I" for 1 was derived from one finger. Five fingers held up indicated five of whatever was being counted. The "V" then was the hand outstretched vertically with the space between the thumb and first finger forming the "V".

Calendar Information        

Happening This Week:

14-20
Everybody Deserves A Massage Week
Sports Cliché Week
Rabbit Week
National Baby Food Week
National Ventriloquism Week

18-21
Comic Con International:
Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS) Education & Awareness Week
19-24

National Scrabble Week

Today Is                                                                      

·        Celebration of The Horse Day

·        Moon Day

·        National Lollipop Day

·        National Hot Dog Day

·        Toss Away the "Could Haves" and "Should Haves" Day

·        Ugly Truck Contest Day

·        Woodie Wagon Day

^^

·        Colombia: Independence Day (1810 from Spain)

Today’s Events through History  

Captain Benjamin Church has been joined by the Sakonett Indians, in the war with 

     King Philip. They attack Philip's main camp, and almost capture Philip. His wife 

     and child are captured. They are sold as slaves. As many as 170 Indians are killed 

     in the fighting…1676

Congresswoman Alice Mary Robertson became the first woman to preside over 

     the US House of Representatives…1921

Convention of the Methodist Church votes to allow women to become priests…1926

FDR nominated for an unprecedented 4th term at Dem convention…1944

French explorer Pierre Gaultier de Varennes et de la Vérendrye reaches the western 

     shore of Lake Michigan…1738

Iron Butterfly's "In-a-gadda-da-vida" becomes 1st heavy metal song to hit charts, 

     at #117…1968

Riot Act takes effect in Great Britain…1712

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

In their 70’s

Diana Rigg, Doncaster England, actress (Emma Peel-Avengers) is 75

In their 60’s

Carlos Santana, Mexico, rock guitarist (Santana-Black Magic Woman) is 65

In their 50’s

Donna Dixon, actress and wife of actor Dan Aykroyd (Couch Trip, Bossom Buddies) is 56

In their 40’s

Beth Coats, Albuquerque NM, biathelete (Olympics-1994) is 47

Sandra Oh, Korean Canadian actress [Grey’s Anatomy] is 42

Under 30

Julianne Hough, American ballroom dancer [DWTS] is 25

Remembered for being born today

Alexander the Great, Pella Macedon, Macedonian king and military leader, [366BC-323BC)

Verna Felton, actress (Hilda-December Bride) [1890-1966]

Edmund Hillary, NZ, Explorer and Mountaineer (1st Mt Everest with Tenzing 

     Norgay), [1919-2008]

Natalie Wood, [Natasha Gurdin], SF, (Gypsy, Rebel Without a Cause) [1938-1981]

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           

Joan M Kemper, lawyer (laid-out Civil Code)…1824…at 48

Andrew Lang, Scottish author (Blue Book of Fairy Tales)…heart failure…1912…at 68

Bruce Lee, [Lee Yuen Kam], actor (Enter the Dragon)…swollen brain…1973…at 32

Guglielmo Marconi, Ital engineer/marquis (radio, Nobel 1909)…heart attack…1937…at 65

Tammy Faye Messner (Bakker), American televangelist…cancer…2007…at 65

Pancho Villa, [Doroteo Arango], Mexican rebel…murdered…1923…at 45

Answer: Brain Teasers

STEER --> STEEL CRASS --> BRASS PESTER --> PEWTER Each new word is an alloy.

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  §