12/14/13

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Flagstaff Almanac:

Week: 50 / Day: 348   

Today: L 16°…H 44°… Ave. humidity: 60%

Wind: ave:   8mph; Gusts:  23mph  

Average Low: 16° Record Low:  -14° (1972)

Average High: 44° Record High:  66° (1946)

Quote of the Day

Today’s Historical Highlights

1st chamber music group in US gives their 1st concert (Boston)…1849

28 people, including 20 children, are shot to death at Sandy Hook Elementary School…2012

Artificial pearls 1st manufactured by M Jacquin in Paris…1656

Congress establishes rank of General of Army (5-star General)…1944

DNA created in a test tube…1967

Jack Johnson is 1st black world heavyweight boxing champion…1915

Jackson Five made their 1st appearance on "Ed Sullivan Show"…1969

Jimmy Dean's "Big Bad John" is 1st country song to get a gold record…1961

Mary Stuart becomes Queen Mary I of Scotland at 6 days old…1542

National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) is founded…1947 

President Bush made his 4th and final trip to Iraq /almost struck by two shoes 

     thrown at him…2008

South Pole 1st reached, by Norwegian Roald Amundsen…1911

Winston Churchill travels to US on board HMS Duke of York…1941

Zuider Zee seawall collapses with loss of 50,000 lives…1287

♫  Today’s Birthdays: ♫   

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

 

My Free Rambling Thoughts   

A nice Friday…not too chilly, not too windy. Our retirement group met for lunch. One of our favorite places was very busy…even at 11:30. We left about 12:30 as there was a line of people waiting for tables. All of us are busy getting ready for our Christmases. Cheryl is headed to California while Mary will be headed to Phoenix. Cheryl is finished with her shopping…but Mary and I both have some stuff to do. We’ll meet early next week for our gift exchange and our favorite bistro here in Flagstaff.

 

The latest school shooting was in Colorado…again. This one was on the same side of town I grew up in, but in a different district. It has about 2K students, about the same size as my high school. Listening to people on CNN, we all say ‘’not at my school.” Just as the Sandy Hook community is coming up to the one year anniversary of their horror, it happens again. Such a horrible event to have to keep reliving in this country. Amazing how cell phones have played such an important role for the police and especially for the parents in these situations.

 

Today is my sister-in-laws birthday. I’m sure she will have a great time. Wish I could be there with her.

Game  Center (answers at the end of post)

Brain Teasers

Some people's names (such as "Will Power") suggest a certain personality or career choice. Given below are some last names and professions (in no particular order). For each last name, your task is to think of a common first name, such that it suggests one of the given professions. Each last name and profession must be used just once. Example: Sonny Day would suggest a meteorologist.

Last Names: Ding, Flay, King, Lynn, Payne, Peace Professions: Musician, Author, Chef, Comedian, Architect, Politician

Lifestyle  Substance:     

Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

• Grocery Store Erupts In Song for Mandela

• Dinah Washington: What Difference A Day Makes

• William Bendix--What's My Line

• Norman Fell Tribute Video

• Morey Amsterdam Show clip

• Patty Duke winning Best Supporting Actress

Very Strange Laws…Indiana

• “Spiteful Gossip” and “talking behind a person’s back” are illegal.

• A person must get a referral from a licensed physician if he or she wishes to see a hypnotist unless the desired procedure is to quit smoking or lose weight.

• A three dollar fine per pack will be imposed on anyone playing cards in Indiana under the Act for the Prevention of Gaming.

• Anyone 14 or older who profanely curses, damns or swears by the name of God, Jesus Christ or the Holy Ghost, shall be fined one to three dollars for each offense, with a maximum fine of ten dollars per day.

• Drinking from your own bottle in a bar can lead to your arrest. You are required to pour your drink into a glass.

• Drinks on the house are illegal.

• Grocery stores may not sell any type of cold liquor.

• Hotel sheets must be exactly 99 inches long and 81 inches wide.

• If any person has a puppet show, wire dancing or tumbling act in the state of Indiana and receives money for it, they will be fined $3 under the Act to Prevent Certain Immoral Practices.

• It is illegal for a liquor store to sell cold soft drinks.

• It is illegal for a man to be sexually aroused in public.

• Liquor stores may not sell milk.

• One man may not back into a parking spot becasue it prevents police officers from seeing the license plate.

• One may not sniff glue.

• Smoking in the state legislature building is banned, except when the legislature is in session.

• State government officials who engage in private duels can be dismissed from their post.

• The value of Pi is 3.

• Waitresses may not carry drinks into a restaurant or bar.

• You can get out of paying for a dependent’s medical care by praying for him/her.

• Beech Grove--
It is forbidden to eat watermelon in the park.

• Elkhart--
It is illegal for barbers to threaten to cut off kid’s ears.

• Evansville--
While driving on Main Street you may not have yourlights on.

• Fort Wayne--
You may not sell or play on a radio broadcast, the record “It`s In the Book”

• Gary--
Within four hours of eating garlic, a person may not enter a movie house, theater, or ride a public streetcar.

• Indianapolis--
Hopefully, residents of the city have spedometers on their horses, for they can not ride them in excess of ten miles per hour. \ One may only throw a stone at a bird in self-defense. \ No person may collect rags on Sunday.

• South Bend--
It is illegal to make a monkey smoke a cigarette.

• Terre Haute--
No one may spit on the sidewalk.

• Warsaw--
No one may throw an old computer across the street at their neighbor.

OK Then…

 

Harper’s Index 

Kernels of corn it takes to make one kernel of Jelly Belly candy corn: 14

Unusual Fact of the Day

Chuck Connors (The Rifleman) is credited with being the first professional player to break a backboard— which occurred during practice before the first Boston Celtics game on November 5^th, 1946.

Joke-of-the-day

There was a little old lady who was nearly blind. She had three sons and they wanted to prove which one was the best son to her.

So son #1 bought her a 15-room mansion thinking this would surely be the best any of them could offer her.

Son #2 bought her a beautiful Mercedes with a chauffeur included thinking he would surely win her approval.

Son #3 had to do something even better than these so he bought her a trained parrot. This parrot had been trained for 15 years to memorize the entire Bible. You could mention any verse in the Bible and the parrot could quote it word for word. How useful his nearly blind mother would find that!

Well, the old lady went to the first son and said, "Son, the house is just gorgeous but it's really much too big for me. I only live in one room, and it's much too large for me to clean and take care of. I really don't need the house, but thank you anyway."

Then she explained to her second son, "Son, the car is beautiful, it has everything you could ever want on it, but I don't drive and I really don't like that driver, so please return the car."

Next, she went to son number three and said, "Son, I just want to thank you for that thoughtful gift. The chicken was small, but delicious."  

Rules of Thumb:   

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess

INSTALLING A FAN IN A SUN ROOM

To move hot air out of an overheated sun room, you need a thermostatically controlled fan with a flow rate of four to six cubic feet per minute per square foot of glass in the sun room.    

Yeah, It Really Happened

Who says China is not westernized? There is no greater icon of western consumerism than a manic, shopping-obsessed woman, and the woman in today's story has set a new precedent for taking shopping to the extreme; she shopped until her boyfriend killed himself.

Okay, there were probably some underlying issues involved, but most men can appreciate the feeling of frustration when a woman just will. not. stop. going from store to store, uttering empty promises of, "this is the last one."

This man, 38-year-old Tao Hsiao, was escorting his girlfriend around a shopping mall in Xuzhou, Jiangsu province, east China. After five hours Tao finally had enough and demanded to go home.

Eyewitnesses say he could be heard saying they already had more bags than they could carry, but she insisted on going into one more shop where there was a special offer on shoes.

An eyewitness said: "He told her she already had enough shoes, more shoes that she could wear in a lifetime and it was pointless buying any more.

"She started shouting at him accusing him of being a skinflint and of spoiling Christmas, it was a really heated argument."

The shouting match ended when the man threw the bags on the floor and jumped over the balcony, smashing into Christmas decorations on his way down before hitting the floor seven stories below causing shocked shoppers to flee in panic.

If that is not a metaphor for the commercialization of Christmas nothing is.

It is not known whether the woman eventually got her last pair of shoes.

Somewhat Useless Information   

• In September 1835 Charles Darwin reached the Galapagos Islands and he was extremely fascinated of what he saw there, such as the volcanic rocks and giant tortoises. It is said that once Darwin discovered the Galapagos tortoises, he climbed on top and attempted to ride them, but without being easy to keep his balance!

• The international educational program DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) has been trying to make students stay away for drug use through strategies that demonstrate all dangers caused by drug use.However, although students are taught the dangers of drugs in an interactive in-school session, DARE has been considered to be ineffective and in some cases the number of drug users at school has been increased.

• Generally known as ‘hash’, the # symbol defines the Twitter- and blogosphere for the last three years. What we did not know so far was the real name of the # symbol! ‘Octothorpe’! Yes, this is the real name for hash and was coined by engineers at Bell Laboratories in the early 1960s.

• Around 26% of women in America die because of heart diseases, the most common ‘killer’ there, which is about 316, 000 women per year. But what do heart attacks in women cause? Heart attacks cause pain in the back or jaw and not pain in the chest or the left arm, like it’ s used to happen in men.

Calendar Information        

Happening This Week:

10-17: Human Rights Week
14-28:  Halcyon Days

14-1/5 Christmas Bird Count Weeks 

Today Is                                                                      

·        Day Of The Horse

·        International Shareware Day

·        Monkey Day

·        National Bouillabaisse Day

~~~~~

·        US: Alabama: Admission Day (1819--22^nd state)

Today’s Events through History  

"Saturday Night Fever" starring John Travolta, premieres in NYC…1977

1st state road authorized, Frankfort, Ky to Cincinnati…1793

Brooklyn Dodgers sign pitcher Sandy Koufax…1953

Glasgow Underground Railway is opened by the Glasgow District Subway Company…1896

Greece formally takes possession of Crete…1913

Max Planck presents a theoretical derivation of his black-body radiation law…1900

President George W. Bush announces the capture of Saddam Hussein…2003

UN Gen Assembly establishes High Comm for Refugees (Nobel 1954)…1950

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

Patty Duke, [Anna Marie], actress (Miracle Worker) is 67

Vanessa Hudgens. Disney actress and singer is 25

Remembered for being born today

Nostradamus, [Michel de Nostre-Dam], astrologist/prophet [1503-1566]

Morihei Ueshiba "the founder" of Japanese martial art of aikido [1883-1969]

Dan Dailey, dancer and actor (Gov Drinkwater-Governor & JJ) [1915-1978]

Lee Remick, actress (Days of Wine & Rose, Long Hot Summer) [1935-1991]

James H Doolittle, USAF General (Raid on Tokyo 1942) [1896-1993]

Morey Amsterdam, comedian and actor (MMT) [1908-1996]

June Taylor, American choreographer [1917-2004]

Don Hewitt, CBS news executive producer (60 Minutes) [1922-2009]

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           

Myrna Loy, [Williams], US actress (Jazz Singer)…1993…@88

Walter Lippmann, US journalist (One of Dynasty)…1974…@85

Arthur Treacher, TV announcer (Merv Griffin Show)…1975…@81

Stubby Kaye, actor (Guys & Dolls, Sweet Charity)…1997…@79  

Verna Felton, actress (Hilda-December Bride)stroke…1966…@76

Norman Fell, actor (Mr. Ropee)…cancer…1998…@74

Jock Mahoney, actor (Dallas, Cow Town, Range Rider)…stroke…1989…@70

J Louis R Agassiz, Swiss geologist/paleo-biologist)…1873…@67

William Bendix, actor (Life of Riley)…pneumeoia…1964…@58

Roger Maris, HR hitter (61 in 61, NY Yankees)…cancer…1985…@51

Albert, Prince consort of England and husband of Queen Victoria…typhoid…1861…@42

Dinah Washington, singer…overdose…1963…@39

James V, King of Scots (1513-42)…delirium…1542…@30

Brain Teasers

Bill Ding - Architect (building)

Sue Flay - Chef (souffle)

Joe King - Comedian (joking)

Amanda Lynn - Musician (a mandolin) [also: Vi Lynn = violin]

Cam Payne - Politician (campaign)

Warren Peace - Author ("War and Peace")

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  §