8/19/13

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Almanac: Flagstaff:  Week: 34/ Day: 231 

Today: H 80°…L 53°

Wind: ave:   3mph; Gusts:  7mph  Ave. humidity:  62%

Average Low   Average High          Record Low    Record High

49°                        80°                            36° (1975)          87° (2002)

Quote of the Day

Today’s Historical Highlights

1st beauty contest (Spa, Belgium), 18 yr old West Indian wins…1888

5 women executed for witchcraft in Salem Mass…1692

Francis Gary Powers convicted of spying by USSR (U-2 incident)…1960

Frenchman Pégoud makes 1st parachute jump in Europe…1913

Hurricane Diane kills 200 & 1st billion $ damage storm (N.E. US)…1955

King James I of Argon censors Hebrew writing…1263

Mary Queen of Scots arrives in Scotland to assume throne after 13 years in France…1561

Mattel & Fisher Price toys merge…1993

NY Herald reports gold discovery in California…1848

Operation Iraqi Freedom ends…2010

Russian czar Peter the Great begins term…1698

Sputnik 5 carries 2 dogs, 3 mice into orbit (later recovered alive)…1960

US raises import duty on bicycles 50%...1955

♫  Today’s Birthdays: ♫   

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

My Free Rambling Thoughts   

Another wet day here in Flag…with a few more lightning started wildfires. They are keeping them small. Today’s paper said that yesterday’s rain brought about 2”-4” on moisture. Amazing for our high desert town…and of course some areas flooded since many areas aren’t prepared for that much moisture at a one time.

 

Watched my Sunday news programs today and am more confused than ever about what is happening in Egypt. The options for the country, the options for our country are not pleasant and not really hopeful. One CNN show concluded that the people of Egypt are going to lose their tourist dollars for the third year in a row. For a country that has so many workers in the tourist industry that depend on that job to feed their families this is devastating. AZ, with its sometimes really crazy politics, has lost some tourist dollars. While not devastating to the state, it sure has hurt business, growth, and families that depend on tourism. Luckily, there are a lot of other choices here when one well stops producing as it has in the past. Sadly, the Egyptian people have few if any other wells to draw from.

Game  Center (answers at the end of post)

Brain Teasers

Each of the clues below describe a 70's American TV show. Can you name each show?

1. Ruffles, Pringles, Frito-Lays 2. 911 ! 3. The aeronautically capable, habit wearing female (3) 4. A four wheeled vehicle, driven by a person whose job it is to take passengers and their luggage where they want to go in exchange for a fee  5. More than seven, nine is too much (3) 6. Small abode on the treeless tract of land (5) 7. Mixture of the sodium salts of various fatty acids of natural oils and fats

Lifestyle  Substance:     

Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

• Cream - White Room

• Groucho Marx - Mystery Guest on What's My Line?

• Gene Roddenberry Up Close and Personal Interview

• Lee Ann Womack - Last Call

Hmmmm…Tongue Twisters

T  
That bloke's back bike brake-block broke.
^^^
Thieves seize skis.
^^^
Three free throws.
^^^
Three gray geese in the green grass grazing.
Gray were the geese and green was the grass.
^^^
Three twigs twined tightly.
^^^
Tim, the thin twin tinsmith.
^^^
Toy boat. Toy boat. Toy boat.
^^^
A tree toad loved a she-toad
Who lived up in a tree.
He was a two-toed tree toad
But a three-toed toad was she.
The two-toed tree toad tried to win
The three-toed she-toad's heart,
For the two-toed tree toad loved the ground
That the three-toed tree toad trod.
But the two-toed tree toad tried in vain.
He couldn't please her whim.
From her tree toad bower
With her three-toed power
The she-toad vetoed him.
^^^
A truly rural frugal ruler's mural.
^^^
A tutor who tooted the flute
Tried to tutor two tooters to toot.
Said the two to the tutor:
"Is it harder to toot or
To tutor two tooters to toot?"
^^^
Twelve twins twirled twelve twigs.
^^^
Two toads, totally tired.
^^^
The two-twenty-two train tore through the tunnel.
Not a Fan of Faux News, but this is crazy.

Ok, then?

Harper’s Index    

Estimated number of patients a Brazilian doctor is suspected of having killed in order to free up hospital beds: 300

Unusual Fact of the Day

If the only thing you have to fear is fear itself, you could be suffering from phobophobia: the fear of phobias.

Joke-of-the-day

You know you're really drunk if you can't lie on the floor without holding on.  

Rules of Thumb:   

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess

JOHN'S RULE OF FOREIGN TRAVEL

The softer the currency, the harder the toilet paper.    

Yeah, It Really Happened

LA PAZ, Bolivia - A Bolivian goatherd with documents that show his age as 123 may be the oldest man live and the oldest authenticated person who has ever lived. Carmelo Flores Laura lives in Frasquia, a village 5 hours from the capital, La Paz, and a 2-hour walk from the nearest road, the BBC reported. He has outlived two of his three sons but has 16 grandchildren and 39 great-grandchildren, La Razon newspaper in La Paz reported. In an interview broadcast by the BBC, Flores attributed at least some of his longevity to the varied diet of his youth with animals like lizards on the menu. Previously, the longest documented lifespan was that of Jeanne Calment, who died in Arles, France, in 1997 at the age of 122 years and 164 days. Calment had the distinction of being the last living person to have met the artist Vincent Van Gogh. Jiroemon Kimura of Japan, who died earlier this year at 116 years and 54 days, had the longest documented life for a man. The documentation for Flores' age is a baptismal certificate. At the time he was born, Bolivia was still several decades away from registering births with the civil authorities.

Somewhat Useless Information   

• Sea water is approximately 3.5 percent salt.

• The Eiffel Tower is painted approximately once every 7 years and requires nearly 50 tons of paint each time.

• The Empire State Building in New York City weighs approximately 365,000 tons.

• The eyeball of a human weighs approximately 28 grams.

• There are approximately 13,000 identifiable varieties of roses throughout the world.

• There are approximately 2,700 different species of mosquitoes.

• There are approximately 250,000 sweat glands in your feet.

Calendar Information        

Happening This Week:

15-21

National Aviation Week
18-24

Little League Baseball World Series
Minority Enterprise Development Week

Today Is                                                                      

·        Aviation Day

·        "Black Cow" Root Beer Float Day

·        Cupcake Day

·        National Men's Grooming Day

·        World Humanitarian Day

^^^

·        Afghanistan: Independence Day (1919 from Britian)

Today’s Events through History  

"My Sharonna" by the Knack hits #1 (stays for 42 days)…1979

English settlers officially found "the other" English colony on North America. Unlike 

     Jamestown, Popham is settled by just men and boys. Popham, northeast of modern 

     Portland, Maine, is established on the bluffs overlooking the spot where the Kennebec 

     River flows into the ocean. The colony lasts only a little over one year. The colony’s 

     second leader returns to England, taking the settlers with him, when he inherits a sizeable 

     estate in England…1607

George Tiller, abortion doctor, shot in his arms by Rachelle Shannon…1993

Java again in Dutch hands…1816

Pres Gerald R Ford won Republican pres nomination at KC convention…1976

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

Ginger [Peter] Baker, drummer (Cream-White Room) is 74

Bill Clinton [William Jefferson], 42nd United States President is 67

Tipper Gore, wife of vice president Al Gore is 65

Gerald McRaney, actor (Simon & Simon, Major Dad) is 66

Diana Muldaur, actress (McCloud, Star Trek Next Gen, LA Law) is 75

Matthew Perry, actor (Friends) is 44

Renee Richards, [Richard Rankind], trans-sexual tennis player is 79

Jill St John, [Oppenheim], Los Angeles California, actress (Diamonds are Forever) is 73

Kyra Sedgwick, actress (The Closer) is 48

John Stamos, actor (General Hospital, Full House) is 50

Lee Ann Womack, Country singer is 47

Remembered for being born today

Malcolm Forbes, publisher (Forbes Magazine) [1919-1990]

Gene Roddenberry, executive producer (Star Trek) [1921-1991]

Willie Shoemaker, jockey (won 8,833 of 40,350 starts) [1931-2003]

Seth Thomas, pioneer in mass production of clocks [1785-1859]

Orville Wright, aviator (Wright Brothers) [1871-1912]

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           

Augustus Caesar, first Roman Emperor…poisoned?...14AD…at 75

John Wesley Hardin, American gunfighter…shot…1895…at 42

Don Hewitt, creator of 60 Minutes…2009…at 86

Groucho Marx, comedian (Marx Bros)…1977…at 86

Blaise Pascal, French mathematician, physicist, and philosopher…TB…1662…at 39  

Tony Scott, director (Top Gun)…suicide…2012…at 68

Brain Teasers

Answer1. CHiPs 2. Emergency! 3. The Flying Nun 4. Taxi 5. Eight is Enough 6. Little House on the Prairie 7. Soap

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  §