8/11/13

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Almanac: Flagstaff:  Week: 33/ Day: 223   

Today: H 76°…L 44°

Wind: ave:   5mph; Gusts:  27mph  Ave. humidity:  %

Average Low  50°     Average High  81°

Record Low        Record High

40° (1900)            89° (2002)

Quote of the Day

Today’s Historical Highlights

$100,000 raised in US for pedestal for Statue of Liberty…1885

1st federal prisoners arrive at Alcatraz in SF Bay…1934

1st newsreel pictures of presidential candidates were taken…1924

38 German aircrafts shot down above England…1940

Al-Qaeda formed…1988

Carl Lewis duplicates Jesse Owens' 1936 feat, wins 4 Olympic track Golds…1984

Funeral of Pope Paul VI…1978

John Wray patents animation…1914

Last steam passenger train service runs in Britain…1968

Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, used by several pre-Columbian 

     Mesoamerican civilizations, notably the Mayans, begins…3114BC

Summer Olympics opens in London…1948

Tecumseh has predicts the "New Madrid Earthquake."…1802

Watts riots begin in Southeast LA, lasts 6 days…1965

♫  Today’s Birthdays: ♫   

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

My Free Rambling Thoughts   

An interesting Saturday. Lots of clouds blew in and out, but no rain in sight. I cleaned off the deck of all its pine needles and pine cones and spent some time enjoying the peace and quiet of the deck. I have also noticed that our cooler weather is freaking out the birds…they are becoming quite ravenous as they prepare for their upcoming journey to warmer climates. Also got to watch 2 squirrels fight each other on my big tree. They would chase each other around the lower trunk, make noise at each other, run up the trunk and onto the branches, then come back down and taunt each other on the trunk.

 

I finally have new neighbors next door. The unit is has been empty for several months. I haven’t met them yet, but thankfully, I haven’t heard them either. Since the last neighbors were so loud, especially on the stairs, this is nice.

Game  Center (answers at the end of post)

Brain Teasers

What is this word?

c o n 

Lifestyle  Substance:     

Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

• enid blyton's interview

• Jackson Pollock Interview

• What's my Line? The Kingston Trio

Hmmmm…Tongue Twisters

K     
Knapsack straps.
^^^^
Kris Kringle carefully crunched on candy canes.
Ever wonder where the name came from?
Knapsack straps. ^^^^ Kris Kringle carefully crunched on candy canes.

Ever wonder where the name came from?

Canon

Surprisingly Canon isn’t a company name at all, just a brand name of Precision Optical Instruments Laboratory, which started making cameras in 1933. The first cameras were sold under the name Kwanon - the name for the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy.

Precision Optical Instruments registered the name Canon as a trademark 1935, partly because this Japanese word can mean criterion, standard or scripture - meanings that reflected the company’s brand aspirations. Obviously Kwanon and Canon are similar words, so it made sense to change from one to the other... giving us the leading camera company that we know today.

Ok, then?

Harper’s Index    

Percentage change since 1970 in the portion of US children growing up in single-parent households: +135

Songs with Double Meanings:

• Let it Be - The Beatles
 Key Triple Lyric of song: "When I find myself in times of trouble, mother Mary comes to me, speaking words of wisdom, let it be." (1) "Mother Mary" is a reference to Jesus' mother, the Virgin Mary, and she comes to him in pray to help him with his troubles; (2) It is well known that "Mary" is slang for marijuana, and that the song's writer, Paul McCartney, is fond of the drug. So "Mother Mary" means smoking weed to get past any troubles in his life; (3) Main/real meaning: "Mary" was the name of Paul's mother, who died when he was a child. Paul said he dreamed of her one night and she said to him in the dream to: "Let it be".

• Let It Bleed - Rolling Stones Key Double Lyric of song: "Yeah, we all need someone we can bleed on" (1) "Let it bleed" is a takeoff of drug slang for finding a vein and then shooting up heroin into it. Explanation: The more one shoots up drugs, the harder it is to find an open vein for the next fix (since they collapse over time from shooting up too much). When a vein is finally found by poking a needle in the body several times - and blood finally appears, that is known as "letting it bleed"; (2) Main/real meaning: Song is about being able to count on one's lover.

Unusual Fact of the Day

Despite being staples of the Old West landscape, neither horses (Europe, Eurasia) nor tumbleweeds (Eurasia) are native to North America.

Joke-of-the-day

Building Security has notified us that there have been 5 suspected terrorists working at our office. Four of the five have been apprehended. Bin Sleeping, Bin Loafing, Bin Gossiping, and Bin Surfing have been taken into custody. Security advised us that they could find no one fitting the description of the fifth cell member, Bin Working, in the office. Police are confident that anyone who looks like Bin Working will be very easy to spot. They thought they had apprehended Bin Working sitting at a desk, but it was actually Bin Surfing trying to impersonate Bin Working.

Rules of Thumb:   

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess

TESTING ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT

 After buying new electronic equipment, use it for 48 hours straight. If it doesn't fail, it probably won't.   

Yeah, It Really Happened

LONDON - Neighbors of a British hoarder said they feared her dead when 22 tons of junk collapsed her house but it turned out she wasn't home at the time. People living near the London home of Wendy Towers, 61, said they called authorities Tuesday when the 22 tons of junk Towers kept on the second floor of her home caused the house to cave in, the London Evening Standard reported Thursday.

"We thought she was dead. We had not seen her for a week, and she was not the type to go on holiday," said Rozmin Najak, 26, who lives across the street. "The ceiling had collapsed, there were sniffer dogs here looking for her and we had all started to believe the worst had happened and we should have done more to check on her. I just couldn't believe it when she walked up the road." However, Najak and others said they were relieved when Towers arrived home from staying at a friend's house. "I had no idea that she was hoarding so much stuff. But I'm just glad she is okay," Najak said. Towers said she will treat the incident as a fresh beginning.

"I'm okay. I will go and stay with some friends in Snaresbrook. It will be a new start," she said. London police and fire brigade officials confirmed they were called to the home Tuesday on a report of a person possibly being trapped in a collapsed home. "We were called out. We sent in a sniffer dog to try to establish whether anyone was in the house. There were no positive signs," a fire brigade spokesman said.

Somewhat Useless Information   

A honey bee must tap two million flowers to make one pound of honey.

A typical American eats 28 pigs in his/her lifetime.

Americans consumed over 3.1 billion pounds of chocolate in 2001, which is almost 

     half of the total world's production.

Americans spend approximately $25 billion each year on beer.

Americans spent an estimated $267 billion dining out in 1993.

An etiquette writer of the 1840’s advised, “Ladies may wipe their lips on the 

    tablecloth, but not blow their noses on it.”

Calendar Information        

Happening This Week:

8-11

National Hobo Week
10-16

Elvis Week
Feeding Pets of the Homeless Week

Weird Contest Week

Today Is                                                                      

·        Ingersoll Day

^^^

·        Chad: Independence Day (1960 from Chad)

·        Zimbabwe: Heroes' Day

Today’s Events through History  

1st color baseball game (Braves vs Dodgers) telecast (WCBS-NYC)…1951

Beach Boys release "Surfin' Safari"…1962

Germany throws out English sales people…1597

Harvey Hubbell patents electric light bulb socket with a pull chain…1896

Kingston Trio are mystery guest on "What's My Line?"…1963

Last Beatle concert tour of US begins…1966

NATO takes over command of the peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, first major 

     operation outside Europe in its 54-year-history…2003

SOS 1st used by an American ship, Arapahoe, off Cape Hatteras, NC…1909

US's 1st successful silver mill (Virginia City, Nev)…1860

World's 1st roller rink opens (Newport RI)…1866

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

Arlene Dahl, Minneapolis Minnesota, actress/TV panelist (Ambush) is 88

Hulk Hogan, [Terry Bollea], WWF heavyweight champion (1984-89) is 60

Joe Rogan, television host is 46

Steve Wozniak, co-founder (Apple Computers) is 63

Remembered for being born today

Enid Blyton [Mary Pollock], children's writer selling over 600 million copies [1897-1968]

Mike Douglas, talk show host (Mike Douglas Show) [1920-2006]

Jerry Falwell, TV evangelist (Moral Majority) [1933-2007]

Alex Haley, writer (Autobiography of Malcolm X, Roots) [1921-1992]

Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, founder of turnverein (gymnastics) movement [1778-1852]

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           

Andrew Carnegie, US steel industrialist/philanthropist…1919…at 83

Peggy Castle, actress (Lily Merrill-Lawman)…cirrhosis…1973…at 46

Peter Cushing, actor (Star Wars, Dr Who)…cancer…1994…at 81

Mike Douglas, American singer and talk show host…2006…on his 86^th birthday

Jackson Pollock, abstract artist…auto accident (East Hampton)…1956…at 44

Eunice Kennedy Shriver, founder of Special Olympics…2009…at 88

Thaddeus Stevens, architect of Radical Reconstruction…dropsy…1868…at 76

Edith Wharton [-Jones], Pulitzer prize author (House of Mirth)…stroke…1937…at 75

Brain Teasers

condescending 

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  §