12/9/13

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Flagstaff Almanac:

Week: 50 / Day: 342   

Today: L 20°…H 27°… Ave. humidity: 79%

Wind: ave:   16mph; Gusts:  39mph  

Average Low: 17° Record Low:  -8° (1951)

Average High: 44° Record High:  62° (1977)

Quote of the Day

 

Today’s Historical Highlights

1st Christmas Seals sold (Wilmington Del post office)…1907

1st game of Women's Pro Basketball League (WBL), Chicago Hustle vs 

     Milwaukee Does…1978

1st Young Men's Christian Association in North America (Montreal)…1851

Alfred Tennyson's poem, "Charge of the Light Brigade," published…1854

Dutch troops occupy harbor city Quilon (Coilan) India…1658

Frank Sinatra Jr is kidnapped…1963

Governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich, is arrested…2008

Lech Walesa wins presidential election in Poland…1990

Noah Webster establishes NY's 1st daily newspaper, American Minerva…1793

Phoenix Arizona, gets 3" of snow…1985

US Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders resigns after comments about masturbation…1994

♫  Today’s Birthdays: ♫   

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

 

My Free Rambling Thoughts   

Couple of inches of snow last night, clear sky for a little while this morning, then overcast again. The HOA did keep the parking lot and sidewalks nice today. I went out to clear the walks about 8:30 this morning, but it was already done…NICE! 

So much about Mandela on the Sunday morning news. He may not have been a saint, but he sure did great things for his country. BBC did an interesting story about his friendship with Castro. After all, Castro supported his cause for years while he was in prison. It will be interesting to watch the ANC now that their ‘spiritual’ leader is gone. Hopefully they will continue his work.

 

Good day for the Broncos…but couldn’t watch it. Cards won too, so that is good.

Game  Center (answers at the end of post)

Brain Teasers

Starting with a one-letter word or abbreviation, add a letter and rearrange the letters to produce the next. A clue is given for each.
Maybe your car does 0 to 60 in 10 sec., but can you do this "0 to 10" in 60 sec.? Go on - get out the stopwatch!

1. Ford model, known as "Tin Lizzie" 2. @ 3. Traitor (slang) 4. Not before the horse, please! 5. Track down; discover 6. Collected by bees 7. Convinced, beyond any doubt 8. Completed in 6 days, according to Genesis 9. "Ashes to ashes" 10. Power and authority; significance

Lifestyle  Substance:     

Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

• Dame Judi Dench reflects on her film career and love of Scotland

• Who said, "I Disapprove Of What You Say..."?

• Sanford & Son "I Don't Know"

• Emmett Kelly - What's My Line?

• Highway Patrol - Cargo Hijack

Very Strange Laws…Maryland

• Oral sex cannot be given or received anywhere.

• Thistles may not grow in one’s yard.

• Baltimore--
  It’s illegal to throw bales of hay from a second-story window within the city limits. \ It’s illegal to take a lion to the movies. \ It is a park rule violation to be in a public park with a sleeveless shirt. \ No person who is a “tramp” or “vagrant” shall loiter in any park at any time. \ It is a violation of city code to sell chicks or ducklings to a minor within 1 week of the Easter holiday.

• Baltimore City--
  Though you may spit on a city roadway, spitting on city sidewalks is prohibited. \ You may not curse inside the city limits.

• Cumberland--
  It is illegal to use profane language on a playground. \ Knocking stones into a public park is prohibited.

• Rockville--
  Persons may not swear while on the highway. \ It is illegal to remove a public building by writing on it. \ Citizens may not swim in the public fountains within the city limits.

OK Then…

 

Harper’s Index 

Portion of Americans who provide some care for family members or friends with significant health problems: 2/5

Unusual Fact of the Day

The first artist signed to the Beatles' Apple Records label was singer-songwriter James Taylor.

Joke-of-the-day

Tom, Dick and Harry went to a party. After the party they returned to the hotel. The hotel was 600 stories high. 

Unfortunately for them, the elevator was not working. They made a plan for the first 200 stories, Tom will crack jokes. 

The second 200 stories Dick will tell a happy story and lastly Harry will tell a sad story. They then started up the steps

After 2 hours it was Harry's turn. He turned to the other two and said "Ok guys, here's my sad story. I forgot the keys downstairs.

Rules of Thumb:   

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess

EXERCISING IN THE HEAT

When exercising in the heat, drop your performance expectations by about 2 percent for every 10 degrees above 55 degrees F. The same 2 percent adjustment works for every 1,000 feet above 5,000 feet altitude.    

Yeah, It Really Happened

HALLANDALE, Fla. - Police in Florida say they have arrested a man who allegedly swindled two women out of $85,700 for bogus "faith healing" services. The man -- booked into jail as Joe Alvarez, 32, although police are unsure of his real name -- allegedly told the women he would perform rituals and sacrifices to expel bad luck and cleanse them of harmful spiritual impurities, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reported. "I was very upset for being so naive and gullible," Evelyn Taveras, 36, of Hallandale Beach, said Wednesday. "I felt like, 'What an idiot. How could you fall for this?' It was very demoralizing." Taveras said she met Alvarez Feb. 6 at the Aventura Mall in Hallandale, where he told her she had a "beautiful aura." "It's just the way he came across, very humble, understanding, just a very familiar feeling," Taveras said. "Recently I had been becoming more religious and spiritual with energy work, positive thinking and auras... and it struck me as odd that he could see that." Alvarez told Taveras his name was "Dorian" and offered "to align her chakras and prevent bad things from happening to her," a police report said. He sold her three crystals for $5,200 each, saying they "were essential for her to maintain a good aura," the report said. The suspect is also accused of stealing $39,000 in cash and some jewelry from Taveras for a total loss of $48,700, the police report said. The second alleged victim, Cassandre Soray, 36, of Miami Shores, met Alvarez in December 2012, also at the mall. He allegedly convinced her to pay him $37,000 "to cleanse the impurities from her," a police report said. "The defendant in this case has used multiple identities, dates of birth and Social Security numbers," police reports said. "The defendant has no known state photo identification, and his true name has not been confirmed." The suspect is being held at a Pompano Beach jail on $16,000 bond.  

Somewhat Useless Information   

• One of 10,000 species of ants, this leaf-cutter ant hauls a leaf more than three times its size back to the nest. 

• Ants are common insects, but they have some unique capabilities. More than 10,000 known ant species occur around the world. They are especially prevalent in tropical forests, where they may be up to half of all the insects living in some locations.

• Ants look much like termites, and the two are often confused—especially by nervous homeowners. However, ants have a narrow "waist" between the abdomen and thorax, which termites do not. Ants also have large heads, elbowed antennae, and powerful jaws. These insects belong to the order Hymenoptera, which includes wasps and bees. Enthusiastically social insects, ants typically live in structured nest communities that may be located underground, in ground-level mounds, or in trees. Carpenter ants nest in wood and can be destructive to buildings. Some species, such as army ants, defy the norm and do not have permanent homes, instead seeking out food for their enormous colonies during periods of migration. 

• Ant communities are headed by a queen or queens, whose function in life is to lay thousands of eggs that will ensure the survival of the colony. Workers (the ants typically seen by humans) are wingless females that never reproduce, but instead forage for food, care for the queen's offspring, work on the nest, protect the community, and perform many other duties. 

• Male ants often have only one role—mating with the queen. After they have performed this function, they may die. Ants communicate and cooperate by using chemicals that can alert others to danger or lead them to a promising food source. They typically eat nectar, seeds, fungus, or insects. However, some species have diets that are more unusual. Army ants may prey on reptiles, birds, or even small mammals. 

• One Amazon species (Allomerus decemarticulatus) cooperatively builds extensive traps from plant fiber. These traps have many holes and, when an insect steps on one, hundreds of ants inside use the openings to seize it with their jaws. Another species, the yellow crazy ant (Anoplolepis gracilipes), is capable of forming so-called supercolonies that house multiple queens. On Australia’s Christmas Island, the accidental introduction of yellow crazy ants in the early 20th century has led to a destructive infestation. The ants are a significant threat to the island’s endemic population of red crabs, which are displaced by the ants from their burrows or killed as they pass through ant nest sites during the crabs' large-scale annual migration from the forest to the coast.

Calendar Information     

Today Is                                                                      

·        Christmas Card Day

·        International Anti-corruption Day

·        National Pastry Day

·        National Salesperson's Day

·        Weary Willie Day Emmett Kelly’s Birthday

~~~~~

·        Tanzania: Independence Day (1961 from UK)

Today’s Events through History  

"A Charlie Brown Christmas" premieres…1963

1st broadcast of "Coronation Street" on British ITV…1960

1st Japanese ambassador to Israel…1957

British assault on Banghazi Libya…1940

France passes law separating church and state…1905

Levant Richardson patents ball-bearing skate…1884

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

Kirk Douglas, [Issur Danielovitch], actor (Gunfight at OK Corral) is 97

Dick Van Patten, actor (Tom Bradford-8 is Enough) is 85

Buck Henry, NYC, screenwriter/comedian (SNL, Get Smart) is 82

Judi Dench, York England, actress (Henry V, Wetherby) is 79

Beau Bridges, actor (Hotel New Hampshire, 5th Musketeer) is 72

Dick Butkus, NFL hall of fame linebacker (Bears)/sportscaster is 70

John Malkovich, actor, producer, writer is 60

Donny Osmond, singer (Osmond Brothers, Donnie & Marie) is 56

Joe Lando, actor (Byron Sully-Dr Quinn) is 52

Felicity Huffman, actress (Desperate Housewives) will be 51

Jesse Metcalfe, actor (Desperate Housewives) is 35

Remembered for being born today

John Milton, London, poet/puritan (Paradise Lost) [1608-1674]

Clarence Birdseye, frozen vegetable king (Birdseye) [1886-1956]

Emmett Kelly, circus clown (Weary Willie) [1898-1979]

Broderick Crawford, actor (All the King's Men, Highway Patrol) [1911-1986]

Redd Foxx, comedian (Sandford & Son, Redd Foxx Show) [1922-1991]

Thomas P "Tip" O'Neill, Rep-Mass/Speaker of the House [1912-1994]

Douglas Fairbanks Jr, actor (Ghost Story) [1909-2000]

David] Deacon Jones, NFL defensive end (LA, SD, Washington) [1938-2013]

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           

Louella Parsons, American gossip columnist…1972…@91

Gene Barry, actor (Bat Masterson, Burke’s Law)…2009…@90

Douglas "Wrong Way" Corrigan (aviator)…1995…@81

Archie Moore, American boxer…1998…@81

Vincent Gardenia, actor (All in the Family, LA Law)…heart attack…1992…@71

Ralph Bunche, UN delegate/Nobel Prize winner…long illness…1971…@67 

Walter Liggett, crusading newspaper editor and muckraker…murdered…1935…@49 

Ann C Coleman, fiancée of President Buchanan, commits suicide…1819…@24

Brain Teasers

1. T

2. At 3. Rat 4. Cart 5. Trace 6. Nectar 7. Certain 8. Creation 9. Cremation 10. Importance

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  §