7/23/13

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Almanac: Flagstaff:  Week: 30/ Day: 204  Today: H 72°…L 55°

Wind: ave:   3mph; Gusts:  10mph  Ave. humidity:  77%

* Average Low Average High Record Low Record High

           51°                  82°              37° (1987)    92° (1996)

Quote of the Day

Today’s Historical Highlights

300 colonists bound for New France depart from Dieppe, France…1632

Napoleon captures Alexandria, Egypt…1798

Airplane crashes into the Empire State Building…1935

Arabs gain control of most of Palestine from Byzantine Empire….636

Ice cream cone created by Charles E Menches during La Purchase Expo…1904

Vanessa Williams, 1st black Miss America, resigns due to posing nude…1984

William Austin Burt patents "typographer" (typewriter)…1829

♫  Today’s Birthdays: ♫   

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

My Free Rambling Thoughts   

Busy Monday. Started off with a trip to get blood drawn for my pesky thyroid. Over the past few years the place I get blood drawn has really changed. First they started asking for the insurance card every time I go in. Then they added the patient spelling their name and saying their birth date to the person drawing the blood. Then they added the patient signing a form that your blood was drawn. Today I was surprised to see a new sign “It is against the law to assault an employee while they are on duty” followed by the reference to the law. Who would have thought that there was a need for such a law, or that the law needed to be posted at the office. I am so naive.  

 

Then this afternoon I headed over to the mall, in the rain, to get a haircut. The lady who cuts my hair was to be in at 3:00 so I got there at 2:45 to sign up for a cut. She didn’t get there until 3:30. Thankfully I was out by 4:00 and set for the month or so. Just get so frustrated when someone is supposed to be there and isn’t, and doesn’t have a real excuse. Oh well, got it done, and really don’t anyone else to cut my hair.

 

The rain has been coming down on and off since last night. My phone has been sending me notices of ‘flash floods’, ‘heavy rain’, ‘flooding’ since last night. This is the issue with monsoon season. We are so dry that a spark of any kind can ignite our beautiful forest, the monsoon comes and soaks the ground, then, as the monsoon continues it has no longer soaks in and just runs off down the mountain. Since there is a huge burn area from a couple of years ago, there is nothing to slow down the rivers of water, so streets, highways, and sometimes houses get flooded. When the monsoon ends, there is lots of new plant life that pops up everywhere, only to dry up with no rain and put the forest in danger again. Life in the forest is never easy.

 

Today would have been my dad’s 99^th birthday. He has been gone for 19 years and is still dearly missed.

Game  Center (answers at the end of post)

Brain Teasers

All these number represent one thing. What is it?

1.609344 1,760  5,280  63,360  160,934.4  1,609,344

Lifestyle  Substance:     

Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

• Guns N' Roses - Sweet Child O' Mine

• A fragment from "Thank you, Jeeves!"

• Ethiopia Haile Selassie Talking and Bob Marley

Hmmmm…Dismissals - Occupational Puns

A wine merchant could be deported.A traffic warden could be defined.A cashier could be distilled.

Ok, then?

Harper’s Index    

• Rank of the US among porn actor-producing nations: 1

• Rank of Hungary: 2

Picture of the Day: Africa’s Big 5

     Lion, African Elephant, Cape Buffalo, Leopard, and Rhinoceros

Unusual Fact of the Day

Al Capone estimated that he spent $30 million a year to pay off judges, police, elected officials, and newspapermen.

Joke-of-the-day

Q: Why did the cowboy ride his horse? A: Because he was too heavy to carry

Rules of Thumb:   

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess

POWERING YOUR BODY

 Your body runs on about the same energy as a 100-watt bulb. About a quarter of the energy goes to your muscles including your heart. Another quarter goes to the liver and spleen. Only about one-fifth is consumed by the brain.    

Yeah, It Really Happened

The Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office says Ashley Taylor Wright tried to smuggle about $260 worth of clothing from a Dillard's dressing room. Apparently she had stashed the stolen merchandise in her baby stroller. Deputies approached her car in the parking lot as she left and asked her to get out.

Authorities said the 23-year-old told the deputy, "You will have to shoot through the baby to get me." Deputies say she then ran from the car and threw the car seat with the baby inside at the deputy. The infant was not injured. Two other young children were also in the car.

Wright faces several charges including child abuse.

Somewhat Useless Information   

• Moonshine reached its popularity during the Prohibition era, but its origins are more than a century earlier during the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794 when the federal government tried to levy taxes on farmers who made and exchanged whiskey.

• The term "moonshine" was actually brought to this country by British settlers who used it to describe various tasks that had to be done at night. It was adapted as a nickname for different types of illegal endeavors that were undertaken under the cover of darkness.

• Sometimes, shine is called mountain dew or white lightning. White lightning came from the fact that real moonshine is colorless.

• Mountain dew came from the fact that moonshiners would often drop their product off at night near a stump in the greenery alongside mountain roads.

• The Moonshine jug is labeled with a large "XXX." The letters indicate that the shine has been run through the still three times, ensuring the alcohol is of an extra high proof (120 or so).

• The fact that moonshine is so potent comes down to the fact that it neither cut nor aged. When it comes out of the still the final time it is crystal clear and anywhere between 150 and 170 proof.  

Calendar Information        

Happening This Week:

19-24

National Scrabble Week

21-27
National Parenting Gifted Children Week
Captive Nations Week
National Independent Retailers Week
National Zoo Keeper Week
World Lumberjack Championships

Today Is                                                                      

·        National Vanilla Ice Cream Day

·        Gorgeous Grandma Day

·        Hot Enough For Ya Day

·        National Day of the Cowboy

^^^

·        Egypt: Revolution Day (1952 end of the monarchy)

Today’s Events through History  

1st US swim school opens (Boston Mass)…1827

4 British ships to drive Dutch out of NY, arrive in Boston…1664

Crusaders attack Damascus…1148

Eastern Cherokees hold a council, to discuss President Jackson's special envoy 

     Elisha Chester's proposals for their removal to Indian Territory (present day 

     Oklahoma). They reject the proposal out-of-hand. They says they will not hold 

     negotiations as long as the federal government is not living up to its previous 

     treaty promises…1832

Peace conference between representatives of Great Britain and the Huron, Ojibwa, 

     Ottawa, Potawatomi and "Six Nations" tribes is held for the next nine days…1766

Pres Nixon refuses to release Watergate tapes of conversations in the White House 

     relevant to the Watergate investigation…1973

Series of attacks across Iraq kill 103 people…2012

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

In their 80’s

Gloria De Haven, actress (Bog, Yellow Cab Man, Irene-Nakia) is 88

In their 70’s

Don Imus, radio disc jockey (WNBC) is 73

In their 60’s

Woody Harrelson, actor (Woody Boyd-Cheers) is 52

In their 40’s

Omar Epps, actor, rapper is 41

Slash, [Saul Hudson], rock guitarist & songwriter (Guns N' Roses) is 48

Monica Lewinsky, White House intern is 40

Marlon Wayans, comedian (Wayans Bros, In Living Color) is 41

Under 30

Daniel Radcliffe, London, actor (Harry Potter) is 24

Remembered for being born today

Bert Convy, actor (Snoop Sisters, Win Lose or Draw) [1933-1991]

Don Drysdale [Donald Scott], MLB player (LA Dodgers-Cy Young 1962) [1936-1993]

Charles S. Frazier, my dad (1914-1994)

Max Heindel, Danish Christian occultist, astrologer, and mystic [1865-1919]

[Harold Peter Henry] Pee Wee Reese, baseball player [1918-1999) ]

Haile Selassie, [Ras Tafari Makonnen], emperor of Ethiopia [1892-1975]

Arthur Treacher, Brighton England, announcer (Merv Griffin Show) [1894-1975]

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           

George Edwards, English naturalist…1773…at 79

Ulysses S. Grant, 18th US president…throat cancer…1885…at 63

D[avid] W[ark] Griffith, US director/producer…stroke…1948…at 73

Van Heflin, actor (Great Adventure)…heart attack…1971…at 60

Vic Morrow, actor (Cimmaron)…during "Twilight Zone"…1982…at 53

Eddie Rickenbacker, WW I fighter pilot…1973…at 82

Sally Kristen Ride, American astronaut…pancreatic cancer…2012…at 61

Daniel Schorr, American journalist…2010…at 93

Eudora Welty, American author…2001…at 92

Amy Winehouse, British singer songwriter…drug overdose…2011…at 27

Answer: Brain Teasers

Units in one mile:

1.609344 kilometers 1,760 yards 5,280 feet 63,360 inches 160,934.4 centimeters 1,609,344 millimeters

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  §