12-3-13

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Flagstaff Almanac:

Week: 49 / Day: 337   

Today: L 21°…H 60°… Ave. humidity: 85%

Wind: ave:   6mph; Gusts:  12mph  

Average Low: 18° Record Low:  -2° (1968)

Average High: 46° Record High:  67° (1977)

Quote of the Day

 

Today’s Historical Highlights

1st Covenant of Scottish protestants form…1557

1st human heart transplant performed (Dr Christian Barnard, South Africa)…1967

1st official US flag raising (aboard naval vessel Alfred)…1775

1st successful technicolor movie (Tall of the Sea), shown in NYC…1922

1st TV broadcast in Hawaii…1952 2,000 die from Union Carbide poison gas 

     emission in Bhopal, India…1984

Alka Seltzer goes on sale…1931

Andrew Jackson elected 7th US President…1828 

Galileo invents telescope…1621

Golden State Warrior Latrell Sprewell, 4yr, $32 million, contract terminated for 

    attacking coach…1997

Mikhail Gorbachev and George Bush, declare the Cold War over…1989

Neon lights 1st publically seen (Paris Auto Show)…1910

Paul Harvey begins his national radio broadcast…1950

Police arrests 800 sit-in students at U of Cal at Berkeley…1964

Sir Thomas Herriot introduces potatoes to England, from Colombia…1586

Tennessee Williams' "Streetcar Named Desire," premieres in NYC…1947

♫  Today’s Birthdays: ♫   

How many can you identify? Answers in Today’s Birthdays

My Free Rambling Thoughts   

What a way to start the new week after a long weekend. We reached 60°, clear blue sky and no more fog. It will be short lived, as a big storm is heading in tomorrow with high wind and decreased temps. What I like about Flagstaff, is one never knows what the weather will be. Our shadowed areas still have snow from the last storm, and another one is on the day.

 

I had some Rez visitors last night who were headed back after a couple of days in Phx. Nice conversation, good to see people from Tuba and see how much the Rez changed my life.

Game  Center (answers at the end of post)

Brain Teasers

The following limerick has had the last word of each line scrambled. Can you figure it out?

It is the unfortunate THIAB Of the rabbit to breed like a BIRTBA. One can say without NOUSETIQ This leads to TECGSONINO In the burrows that rabbits TANIIBH.

Lifestyle  Substance:     

Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

• Katarina Witt - 88 Oly LP - Carmen

• Pierre Auguste Renoir - Virtual gallery

• Andy Williams - A Summer Place – 1962

• Ozzy Osbourne - Bark at the Moon – live

Very Strange Laws…Minnesota

• The land of 10,000 lakes declares mosquitos a public nuisance.

• It is illegal to stand around any building without a good reason to be there.

• A person may not cross state lines with a duck atop his head.

• It is illegal to sleep naked.

• All men driving motorcycles must wear shirts.

• Citizens may not enter Wisconsin with a chicken on their head.

• Oral sex is prohibited.
Oral sex is prohibited.

• All bathtubs must have feet.

• Cottage Grove
--Airplanes may not be landed in city parks. \ Residents of even numbered addresses may not water their plants on odd-numbered days excluding the thirty first day where it applies.

• Hibbing
--It shall be the duty of any policeman or any other officer to enforce the provisions of this Section, and if any cat is found running at large, or which is found in any street, alley or public place, it shall be the duty of any policeman or other officer of the city to kill such cat.

• Minneapolis
--People are forbidden from walking in and/or down alleyways. \ Red cars may not drive down Lake Street.

• Minnetonka
--Driving a truck with dirty tires is considered a public nuisance. \ Placing tacks on a sidewalk is considered a public nuisance. \ Any person who persuades another to enter a massage therapist business after 11:00 PM is guilty of a misdemeanor.

• St. Cloud--Hamburgers may not be eaten on Sundays.

 OK Then…

Harper’s Index 

• Amount NYC fined 2 sanitation workers for accepting a $10 tip last year: $2000

• Percentage change since 1979 in the portion of low wage workers holding a 4 year college degree: +100

Unusual Fact of the Day

Al Capone's WWI draft card stated his occupation as "paper cutter."

Joke-of-the-day

An Israeli author was searching for a book store that would allow him to schedule a book signing to promote his new novel. Book store after book store refused him with one disapproving comment after the other. Finally, the author seized on the idea that he should contact the specialty stores for his proposed book signing. He had the idea to contact a feminist book store and his call was screened by the store's assistant manager. Upon insistence, by the author, that he speak directly with the manager; an angry manager took the phone to explain why the author was being refused a book signing. "IT'S BECAUSE THE HEBREW WORD FOR: SHE!....IS: HE!" And with those words the author heard a telephone being slammed down loudly, in his ear.  

Rules of Thumb:   

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess

OPENING A PARACHUTE

When cars look as big as ants, it's time to open the parachute. When ants look as big as cars, you've waited too long.    

Yeah, It Really Happened

UPLANDS, Wales - A Welsh bar that posted a sign on behalf of a woman who wanted to tell her husband she was divorcing him changed the sign again to say she is "keeping the dog." Noah's Yard in Uplands, which has a history of changing its sign to give special messages, put up the words "Paul... I am divorcing you" on the exterior of the building during the weekend and the sign was changed Tuesday to read "BTW I am keeping the dog," using the "BTW" text-speak for "by the way," the South Wales Evening Post reported Tuesday. The woman, who asked to remain anonymous, said she asked Noah's Yard to change the sign during the weekend to publicly shame her husband for his alleged infidelity. "I was angry and upset so wanted a sign to go up for everyone to see," she said. "When I found out I went through a mixture of emotions but felt angry and wanted him to pay. I had a drink in the bar on Tuesday and decided to get my own back. We have been married for years and it is so sad it has come to this. I am absolutely devastated and going through a really tough time at the moment. A lot of my friends and family have seen it and have been supporting me. I did feel a bit better once the sign went up. I wanted to name and shame him." It was not certain Tuesday that the dog-themed sign was a request from the same woman, the Evening Post said.  

Somewhat Useless Information   

• Dr. Seuss coined the word nerd in his 1950 book If I Ran the Zoo.

• How did grocers get their name? They sold goods by the gross.

• How did hammocks get their name? They were first made from the fibers of the hamack tree.

• Theater spotlights used to burn lime for light. Thus the term limelight.

• The lollipop was named after Lolly Pop, one of the most famous racehorses of the early 1900s.

• Police are sometimes called the fuzz because London police once wore fuzzy helmets.

Calendar Information        

Happening This Week:

1-7: Clerc-Gallaudet Week~~Cookie Cutter Week~~International Coelenterate Biology Week~~National Handwashing Awareness Week~~Recipe Greetings For The Holidays Week~~Tolerance Week

Today Is                                                                      

·        Coats and Toys for Kids Day

·        International Day of Persons With Disabilities

·        National Roof over Your Head Day

~~~~~

·        US-Illinois: Admission Day (1818; 21^st )

Today’s Events through History  

After nearly 20 years of planning and construction, the Quebec Bridge opens to traffic…1917

Edmund Halley receives MA from The Queen's College, Oxford…1678

Frederick Douglass publishes 1st issue of his newspaper "North Star"…1847
1st blacks on US trial jury appointed for Jefferson Davis trial…1868

US government asks UN to order dictator Franco out of Spain…1946

Zaldivar "discovers" Acoma…1598

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

Bobby Allison, auto racer (3 time winner of Daytona 500) is 76

Ozzy Osbourne, Birmingham, UK rock vocalist (Black Sabbath-Bark at the Moon) is 65

Daryl Hannah, actress (Splash, Blade Runner) is 53

Julianne Moore, actress (Magnolia, The Kids are Alright) is 53

Katarina Witt, figure skater (Olympic-Gold-1984, 88) is 48

Brendan Fraser, actor (School Ties, 20 Bucks) is 45

Jake T. Austin, Nickelodeon TV  actor is 19

Remembered for being born today

Samuel Crompton, English inventor (mule-jenny spinning machine) (1753-1827)

Charles Alfred Pillsbury, American industrialist (1842-1899)

Andy Williams, singer (Moon River, Andy Williams Show) (1927-2012)

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           

Mary Baker Eddy, founder (Christian Science (Monitor))…1910…@89

Charles James O'Donnell, Irish politician…1934…@85

John Carroll (priest), first Roman Catholic archbishop in the US,,,1815,,,@80

Pierre A Renoir, French painter/sculptor…1919…@78

Robert Louis Stevenson, Scottish novelist…stroke…@45

Brain Teasers

It is the unfortunate habit Of the rabbit to breed like a rabbit. One can say without question This leads to congestion In the burrows that rabbits inhabit.

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  §