1-20-14


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Flagstaff Almanac:
Week: 04 / Day: 020   
Today: L 16°…H 56°… Ave. humidity: 48%
Wind: ave:   8mph; Gusts:  18mph  
Average Low: 17° Record Low:  -14° (1922)
Average High: 43° Record High:  61° (1950)

Quote of the Day
 
Today’s Historical Highlights
1265 - 1st English Parliament called into session by Earl of Leicester                              
1502 - The present-day location of Rio de Janeiro is first explored.
1503 - Casa Contratacion (Board of Trade) found (Spain) to deal with American affairs
1785 - Samuel Ellis advertises to sell Oyster Island (Ellis Is), no takers
1805 - Lewis and Clark repair Indian tools for food.
1809 - 1st US geology book published by William Maclure
1841 - China cedes Hong Kong to British
1869 - Elizabeth Cady Stanton becomes 1st woman to testify before US Congress
1887 - US Senate approves naval base lease of Pearl Harbor
1920 - The American Civil Liberties Union is founded.
1929 - 1st feature talking motion picture taken outdoors, "In Old Arizona"
1930 - 1st radio broadcast of "Lone Ranger" (WXYZ-Detroit)
1949 - J. Edgar Hoover gives Shirley Temple a tear gas fountain pen
1980 - President Jimmy Carter announces US boycott of Olympics in Moscow
1988 - Arizona committee opens hearing on impeachment of Gov Evan Mecham
1989 - Reagan becomes 1st pres elected in a "0" year, since 1840, to leave office alive
1998 - Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inducts Mama & Papas & Eagles

♫  Today’s Birthdays: ♫   
How many can you identify? Answers in Today’s Birthdays
 
My Free Rambling Thoughts   
Another ‘hardly winter’ day here in Flag…but we are rapidly approaching the driest consecutive days of no precip in our history. Not a record that we were looking for.
 
Our discussion group was very informative last night. So many of the ideas presented showed that our next ‘war’ will be a cyber one, before a bombing war. Our electric grid, our water grid, our banking grid are all vulnerable to attacks. We saw over the past few weeks that our credit cards are far from secure. One needs little imagination to project what would happen if any one of the three grids shut down. And all the while the military is busy building anti-this and anti-that to stop fighting armies. Our free market system has decided that it is too expensive to put chips in our credit cards that would prevent hacking, as has been done throughout Europe and much of the rest of the world. On a couple of my trips, my credit card didn’t work because the business only accepted cards with a chip…they always found a way to put the card through, but couldn’t believe that the US was not using a chip. We hear in the news that it is ‘just too expensive’ to replace all the point of service ports. As the current credit card mess becomes more explained and merchants began losing money because people won’t shop at their stores for fear of having their data stolen, maybe then change will come….but that may be too late. If a 17 year old can hack Target and Neiman’s and who knows who else, we have to demand a change now.
 
Broncos are Super Bowl bound…WTG!

Game  Center (answers at the end of post)
Brain Teasers
In this teaser, I have given you a 9-letter word. Your job is to break up this word into 9 separate letters and place them on the dashes to spell a 7-letter word, a 5-letter word, and a 3-letter word. You can use each letter only once.
CULTIVATE 1. _ A _ I _ N _ 2. _ O _ N _  3. _ C _

Lifestyle  Substance:     
Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

Actual Complaints… These are actual complaints received from dissatisfied customers by Thomas Cook Vacations (based on a Thomas Cook/ABTA survey):
"The roads were uneven and bumpy, so we could not read the local guide book during the bus ride to the resort. Because of this, we were unaware of many things that would have made our holiday more fun."
Suggested New State Mottos:
Hawaii: Haka Tiki Mou Sha'ami Leeki Toru (Death To Mainland Scum, But Leave Your Money)
Remembering TV’s great shows:
"The Sopranos" A family saga like no other and a Mafia drama that whacked us repeatedly
with its psychological riches and gallows humor, David Chase's groundbreaking masterpiece asked us to empathize with the most human of mobsters (and monsters): Tony, played by the great James Gandolfini. He and his gang haunt us still.              
with its psychological riches and gallows humor, David Chase's groundbreaking masterpiece asked us to empathize with the most human of mobsters (and monsters): Tony, played by the great James Gandolfini. He and his gang haunt us still.              
Auction Prices
The world's most expensive carpet. Want to know the going rate for a Sickle-Leaf Persian rug from the early 17th century? The answer would be $33.7 million, making the nearly 9-foot by 7-foot carpet the most expensive ever sold at auction.
OK Then…
 
Harper’s Index 
  • Coffin manufacturers in the United States today: 400
  • Fifteen years ago: 600

Unusual Fact of the Day
Crickets' ears are located on their front legs, a little below their knees.
Joke-of-the-day
Four high school boys afflicted with spring fever skipped morning classes. After lunch they reported to the teacher that they had a flat tire.
Much to their relief she smiled and said: "Well, you missed a test today so take seats apart from one another and take out a piece of paper."
Still smiling, she waited for them to sit down. Then she said:
"First Question: Which tire was flat?"  
Rules of Thumb:   
Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess
FINDING SOMEONE TO TRUST
People don't laugh when they're tickled unless they trust the tickler.    
Yeah, It Really Happened
IMPERIAL, Mo. - A Missouri man who took a nearly six-month stroll from his hometown to San Diego said he was inspired by the movie "Forrest Gump." Anthony Lambing, 28, of Imperial said he was watching the 1994 film "for the 22nd or 23rd time" when he became intrigued by the titular character's three-year run back and forth across the United States, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Thursday. "It had been in my mind for a long time," Lambing said. "I liked road trips, and I was a daydreamer." However, Lambing said he decided against running. "I got realistic; I said, I couldn't do that much work," he said. "But walking it would take about six months and was more realistic." Lambing said his research into people who performed similar feats indicated it would take him about six months to walk from Imperial to San Diego, but he set out in August 2011 and arrived in San Diego only 5 1/2 months later. Lambing said he took a cue from "Forrest Gump" and decided to walk just for the sake of walking. "I didn't want to plug a cause. ... Like Forrest Gump said, he just felt like running; I just felt like walking," he said. Lambing said a friend met him in San Diego and they caught a flight home. "Five-and-a-half months to walk out there and 6 hours to fly back," he said.  

Somewhat Useless Information   
  • There are 5 species of rhinos: white, black, Javan, Sumatran, and Indian. Black and white rhinos are in reality the same color (gray)—their lip shape is the main difference. White rhinos are normally larger than black rhinos.
  • Size: The white rhino is the second to the largest mammal (second to the elephant). It weighs around 5 tons. Rhinos reach 6 feet or taller at the shoulder.
  • Life and Reproduction: Rhinos live about 45 years. Rhinos reproduce very slowly. A mother gives birth to one calf every 3-5 years. Mothers take care of their calves for the first 3 years. Rhinos are on the endangered species list.
  • Horns: Rhinos have two unique horns; the front one is the longer. Some rhinos have a 3 to 5 foot-long front horn. Arabs used the rhino horn as handles to daggers. A rhino can re-grow a broken horn. 

Calendar Information        
Happening This Week:
16-26
Sundance Film Festival
17-23
National Fresh Squeezed Juice Week
18-19
Bald Eagle Appreciation Days
18-26
International Snowmobile Safety and Awareness Week  
Week of Christian Unity
Clean Out Your Inbox Week
Healthy Weight Week
Hunt For Happiness Week
19-24
National Activity Professionals Week   
National Nurse Anesthetists Week
National Handwriting Analysis Week
20-24
No Name Calling Week  
Sugar Awareness Week

Today Is                                                                      
·        Camcorder Day
·        Martin Luther King Day
·        National Day of Service
·        National Disc Jockey Day
·        Penguin Awareness Day
·        Robert E. Lee Day
·        Women in Blue Jeans Days
·        Women's Healthy Weight Day
^^^^^^
·        Martyrs Day (Azerbaijan)

Today’s Events through History  
1937 - 1st Inauguration day on Jan 20th, (held every 4th years there-after)
1945 - FDR sworn-in for an unprecedented 4th term as president
1953 - 1st live coast-to-coast inauguration address (Eisenhower)
1961 - Robert Frost recites "Gift Outright" at JFK's inauguration
1969 - Richard M Nixon inaugurated as president
1981 - Ronald Reagan inaugurated as 40th US President- 52 Americans held 
           hostage in Iran for 444 days freed
1989 - George H W Bush inaugurated as 41st US President
1993 - Bill Clinton inaugurated as 42nd US President
2009 - Barack Obama, inaugurated as the 44th President
^^^^^^^
1576 - The Mexican city of León is founded by order of the viceroy Don Martín 
             Enríquez de Almansa.
1778 - 1st American military court martial trial begins, Cambridge, Mass
1801 - John Marshall appointed US chief justice
1968 - US female Figure Skating championship won by Peggy Fleming

Today’s Birthdays                                                           
Arte Johnson, comedian (Laugh-in, Don't Call Me Charlie) is 85
David Lynch, film director, television director is 68
Joe Doherty, Ireland, IRA activist (jailed in US) is 59
Bill Maher, comedian (Politically Incorrect; Real Time) is 58
Lorenzo Lamas, actor (Lance-Falcon Crest, California Fever) is 56
Rainn Wilson, actor (The Office, Juno) is 48

Remembered for being born today
1888 - Lead Belly, blues 12 string guitarist (Rock Island Line)
1896 - George Burns, [Nathan Birnbaum], actor/comedian (Oh God)
1920 - DeForest Kelley, actor (Dr McCoy-Star Trek)
1920 - Federico Fellini, director and scriptwriter (8 1/2, La Dolce Vita)
1923 - Slim Whitman, yoddler/country singer (Home on the Range)
1926 - Patricia Neal, actress (Hud, Subject Was Roses)
1937 - Dorothy Provine, actress (Good Neighbor Sam, Darn Cat)

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           
Barbara Stanwyck, [Ruby Stevens], actress (Big Valley) 1990 @82
Johnny Weissmuller, US swimmer (Olympics-5 gold-1924, 28) stroke 1984 @79
Etta James, American singer, leukemia 2012 @73
Venerable Father Basil Anthony Marie Moreau, Founder-Congregation of 
     Holy Cross 1873 @73
King George V of the United Kingdom long illness 1936 @70
Audrey Hepburn, actress (Roman Holiday) colon cancer 1993 @63

Brain Teasers
1. VALIANT 2. COUNT 3. ICE
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  §

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Flagstaff, Arizona, United States
I retired in '06--at the ripe old age of 57. I enjoy blogging, photography, traveling, and living life to it's fullest.