10/22/13

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Flagstaff Almanac:

Week: 43/ Day: 295   

Today: L 25°…H 61°… Ave. humidity: 39%

Wind: ave:   5mph; Gusts:  10mph  

Average Low: 29° Record Low:  9° (1906)

Average High: 61° Record High:  76° (2003)

Quote of the Day

Today’s Historical Highlights

1st ship sails by Erie-channel (Rome-Utica)…1819

Boston Symphony Orchestra gives its 1st concert…1881

Chester Carlson demonstrates 1st Xerox copying machine…1938

Grete Weitz runs female world record marathon (2:32:29.8)…1978

Hurricane Sandy forms in the Western Caribbean Sea…2012

Original Metropolitan Opera House (NYC) grand opening (Faust)…1883

Paul McCartney denies rumors of his death…1969

Princeton University (NJ) received its charter…1746

Ringling Brothers Greatest Show on Earth buys Barnum & Bailey circus…1907

Sam Houston inaugurated as 1st elected pres of Republic of Texas…1836

Temple of Apollo at Daphne, outside of Antioch, is destroyed in a mysterious fire…362

Toastmasters International is founded…1924

♫  Today’s Birthdays: ♫   

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

 

My Free Rambling Thoughts   

I’ve seen Edible Arrangements advertised for a few years and wondered if it was any good. For my brother’s birthday I sent him one of the arrangements. It arrived as requested today. He was very happy with the food…not real happy about the calories, but said the smell was fantastic. Good choice, glad I did it.

 

And the bad news just keeps coming…first it was the Boy Scout leader who toppled the rock in Utah, destroying part of a National Monument. Reported after the idiot posted it on Youtube. Then he gives a story about saving future hikers. Now it’s out that he had just recently applied for disability payments over a back injury from a traffic accident. Sounds to me like it is time for some house cleaning at the BSA.

 

Another school shooting…one teacher and one student dead.  Or as the closed minded NTA would say, just another random act of violence. The kid got the gun from his parent’s house.

Game  Center (answers at the end of post)

Brain Teasers

What do these six words have in common?

BACKSPLASH BIRTHPLACE MATCHSTICK HEARTTHROB THOUSANDTHS ANGSTS

BONUS: What's so special about the word ANGSTS?

Lifestyle  Substance:     

Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

• Dory Previn - Mythical Kings and Iguanas

• Paul Cezanne Biography

• Paul Casals: Song of the Birds

• I Love Lucy- Lucy meets Madame Lemond

Hmmmm…Fearsome Phobias

If you have an irrational fear of... Good news
You're suffering from... Euphobia Greek euphoria ‘power of enduring easily’

If you have an irrational fear of... Gravity
You're suffering from... Barophobia Greek baros 'weight'

OK Then…

Harper’s Index 

Percentage of American cats that are overweight: 58

Amazing Facts About The Human Body

Kidney: Each kidney contains 1 million individual filters. They filter an average of around 1.3 liters (2.2 pints) of blood per minute, and expel up to 1.4 liters (2.5 pints) a day of urine.

Unusual Fact of the Day

France's last execution via guillotine was in 1977.

Joke-of-the-day

A woman went down to the Welfare Office to get aid. The office worker asked her, "How many children do you have?"

"Ten," she replied.

"What are their names?" he asked.

"David, David, David, David, David, David, David, David, David and David," she answered.

"They're all named David?" he asked "What if you want them to come in from playing outside?"

"Oh, that's easy," she said. "I just call 'David,' and they all come running in."

"And, if you want them to come to the table for dinner?"

"I just say, 'David, come eat your dinner'," she answered.

"But what if you just want ONE of them to do something?" he asked.

"Oh, that's easy," she said. "I just use their last name!"

Rules of Thumb:   

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess

TIMING A CRIME

Find out when the police change shifts in the neighborhood where you plan to commit a crime. You can count on 25 minutes with no patrols starting with the last 15 minutes of the shift that's ending. During this time, policemen are usually writing up reports and talking to the incoming officers.

Yeah, It Really Happened

It sounds nuts, but a Tennessee police officer has been kicked off the force after a run-in with a squirrel.

Jody Putnam was fired from the Mountain City Police Force after a Sept. 27 incident where he shot his gun at the unnamed squirrel, which had found its way into the Dollar General store.

Animal control to help get rid of the rascally rodent, but when that officer was unavailable, Putnam answered the call of duty instead.

Putnam tried to apprehend his squirrelly suspect by shooting his gun inside the store, according to property owner Carl Duffield.

"Shooting back there, of course that should not have been, that should not have happened. Then they began to spray it with mace and pepper spray." Duffield told WJHL-TV. "There was a lot of people that come out and just like me they came out and they were coughing and a hacking. It was comical, but I'm sure they didn't feel that way, the customers that came out."

It is unknown how many shots Putnam fired, and Dollar General store officials have refused to release the surveillance tape.

When bystanders were allowed back in the store, they saw the dead squirrel pinned under his shoe, the Mountain City Tomahawk reported.

In Mountain City, officers are required to make a written statement to their supervisor whenever they fire a weapon.

Putnam, an officer with nearly two decades of experience, refused to explain his squirrel shooting, so he was fired by the town's Board of Mayor and Alderman, according to WBIR.

"The decision the City Council made on this incident speaks for itself,” Mountain City Mayor Lawrence Keeble told the Tomahawk.  

Somewhat Useless Information   

• There are about 5,000 different species of ladybugs in the world. They come in many different colors and patterns, but the most familiar in North America is the seven-spotted ladybug, with its shiny, red-and-black body.

• Ladybugs breathe through openings on the sides of their bodies.

• When threatened, the bugs will secrete an oily, foul-tasting fluid from joints in their legs. They may also play dead. 

• Ladybugs lay their eggs in clusters or rows on the under-side of a leaf, usually where aphids have gathered. Larvae, which vary in shape and color based on species, emerge in a few days. 

• A ladybug in flight beats its wings up to 85 times per second.

• The name "ladybug" was coined by European farmers who prayed to the Virgin Mary when pests began eating their crops. After ladybugs came and wiped out the invading insects, the farmers named them "beetle of Our Lady." This eventually was shortened to "lady beetle" and "ladybug."

Calendar Information        

Happening This Week:

17-24

Food & Drug Interactions and Awareness Week
20-26

Freedom of Speech Week
Medical Assistants Recognition Week  
National Character Counts Week
National Chemistry Week
National Forest Products Week
National Friends of Libraries Week 
National Hospital and Health-System Pharmacy Week  
National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week 
National Massage Therapy Week
National Respiratory Care Week
National Save For Retirement Week
Pastoral Care Week
Red Ribbon Week 
Ally Week
Kids Care Week
21-25

National School Bus Safety Week 
National Nuclear Science Week
Disarmament Week
Peace, Friendship and Good Will Week
Prescription Errors Education & Awareness Week

Today Is                                                                      

·        Caps Locks Day

·        International Stuttering Awareness Day

·        Make A Difference Day

Today’s Events through History  

Lewis & Clark visit a Sioux war party…1804

1st commercial flight from mainland to Hawaii…1936

Walt Disney World's 100-millionth guest…1979

World Football League disbands…1975

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

Joan Fontaine, Tokyo Japan, actress (Gunga Din, Ivanhoe, Rebecca) is 95

Christopher Lloyd, actor (Taxi, Back to the Future) is 75

Lynette Fromme, attempted assassin of Gerald Ford is 65

Jeff Goldblum, actor (Fly, Jurassic Park, Independence Day) is 61

Carlos Mencia. Honduran-born comedian, writer, and actor is 46

Remembered for being born today

Franz Liszt, Hungary, romantic composer/virtuoso pianist ( Faust Symphony) [1811-1886]

Sarah Bernhardt, France, actress (Camille, Queen Elizabeth) [1844-1923]

Bobby Fuller, rock vocalist/guitarist (Bobby Fuller Four) [1942-1966]

Timothy Leary, Harvard prof (LSD taker) [1920-1996]

Dory Previn [Dorothy Veronica Langan], singer-songwriter [1925-2012]

Annette Funicello, actress (Mickey Mouse Club) [1942-2013]

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           

Pablo Casals, Spanish violin cellist/conductor/composer…1973…@96

Red Barber, sportscaster (Dodgers, Yankees)…1992…@84

Soupy Sales (Milton Supman), comedian and television personality…2009…@83

Mary Wickes, actress (Sister Act)…1995…@83

Russell Means, Native American activist…esophageal cancer…2012…@72

Paul Cézanne, French Post-Impressionist painter…pneumonia…1906…@67

Charles "Pretty Boy" Floyd, gangster…shot by FBI…1934…@30

Brain Teasers

All of these contain a string of five consecutive consonants uninterrupted by vowels or spaces.

BONUS: ANGSTS is the shortest word in the English language with five consecutive consonants.

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  §