1-31-14

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Flagstaff Almanac:

Week: 05 / Day: 031   

Today: L 28°…H 47°… Ave. humidity: 50%

Wind: ave:   18mph; Gusts:  34mph  

Average Low: 17° Record Low:  -25° (1916)

Average High: 44° Record High:  63° (1971)

Quote of the Day

 

Today’s Historical Highlights

1747 - The first venereal diseases clinic opens at London Lock Hospital.

1851 - SF Orphan's Asylum, 1st in California, founded

1865 - Gen Robert E. Lee named Commander-in-Chief of Confederate Armies

1876 - The United States orders all Native Americans to move into reservations.

1915 - 1st (German) poison gas attack, against Russians

1919 - The Battle of George Square takes place in Glasgow, Scotland. Troops 

           deployed against protesters for fear of a Bolshevik uprising.

1928 - Scotch tape 1st marketed by 3-M Company

1936 - "Green Hornet" radio show is 1st heard 

1948 - J D Salinger's "A Perfect Day for Banana Fish" appears in NY

1949 - 1st daytime soap on TV 

1955 - RCA demonstrates 1st music synthesizer

1958 - James van Allen discovers radiation belt

1958 - US launches their 1st artificial satellite, Explorer 1

1961 - Ham is 1st primate in space (158 miles) aboard Mercury/Redstone 2

1982 - 10 Arabian oryx (extinct except in zoos) released in Oman

1988 - Super Bowl XXII: Wash Redskins beat Denver Broncos, 42-10 in San Diego 

♫  Today’s Birthdays: ♫   

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

 

My Free Rambling Thoughts   

A fairly windy and overcast day…something we haven’t seen for quite a spell. Today tied the record for the most days in a row with no precipitation…maybe we will finally get something. It looks like snow, but feels like rain. Whatever comes out of the sky just needs to be really wet. The humidity is up so all fingers and toes are crossed for some much needed precipitation.  If it comes before midnight, the 1917 record is tied, if after midnight, a new record.

 

Our retirement group got together for lunch and a movie…lunch at Red Lobster was very good. Mary caught us up on her NY/NC trip. She had a great much needed break and had some cool pics of NYC. Her hotel offered a free tour of NYC…where you could get off the tour anytime you wanted to and when you were ready to continue you just hopped on the next shuttle…which she said came by every 15 minutes. Now that is a great way to see Manhattan. She caught a cold and since she is taking some med that depresses the immune system, it because pneumonia, and she had to go on antibiotics while in NC. She is fine now. Cheryl and I had semi-quite weeks with no great news. Then we went and saw Nebraska, I have always enjoyed Bruce Dern and some of the others in the movie. Since I spent time in SD, while living in a small Nebraska town, I could sure identify. Cheryl worked a number of years in Lincoln, and pointed out several sites she knew well. From my limited point of view, the movie sure hit small town Nebraska right on the head. Well worth the time spent.

Game  Center (answers at the end of post)

Brain Teasers

Here are more movie alternates, but this time they are a bit more challenging.
Use synonyms of the following phrases to decode popular movie titles.

1.) Razors of Honor 2.) Wonder-male Comes Back 3.) Ruler of the Bands 4.) Endless Light of the Unstained Head 5.) Super Quartet 6.) Mandibles

Lifestyle  Substance:     

Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

• A A Milne speaks (1929)

• Arabian oryx

• Carol Channing sings on 1953 TV

• Norman Mailer What is a Hipster

Suggested New State Mottos:

• Tennessee: The Educashun State

• Virginia: Who Says Government Stiffs And Slackjaw Yokels Don't Mix?

Remembering TV’s great shows:

"Star Trek" Five-year mission? Are you out of your Vulcan mind? Nearly 50 years later, Gene Roddenberry's creation continues to boldly go where no science-­fiction franchise has gone before, launching five more TV series and a dozen movies. Can it keep going? Yes, it Khaaan!

Phrases Shakespeare invented:                                                   

eat out of house and home Henry IV; Part 2; Act 2, Scene 1

Words Shakespeare invented

HurryDefinition: Move or act with haste; rush
Origin: Likely derived from the verb "harry"
Quote: "Lives, honors, lands, and all hurry to loss." - Henry VI Part 1

OK Then…

Harper’s Index 

• Number of FB users in a class-action settlement after the company violated their privacy: 3,663,543

• Total amount the class received in the settlement: $39,000

• Total amount the plaintiffs’ lawyers received: $2,364,973

Unusual Fact of the Day

Despite its reputation as a cosmonaut staple, freeze-dried ice cream only made one mission to space. In 1968, it provided instant sugar rushes to the astronauts of Apollo 7.

Joke-of-the-day

A beautiful, sexy, good looking lady was sitting next to a guy in a plane...... The lady said to him ' Can you help me remove something from my breast please? ‘The exciting young man replied, 'Wow! It will be my pleasure....... So what is it?'
"Your Eyes, idiot!"  

Rules of Thumb:   

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess

MIXING CONCRETE

The largest stones in a batch of concrete should be one-fourth the thickness of the slab you are going to pour. A driveway six inches thick should have stones no larger than one and a half inches in diameter.    

Yeah, It Really Happened

OKLAHOMA CITY - A Satanic group based in New York said it has been surprised by the support it's received for a statue the group wants to place at the Oklahoma state Capitol. The Satanic Temple of New York caused a stir this month when it proposed a 7-foot-tall statue of Satan and two children be placed alongside a Ten Commandments monument on the grounds of the Oklahoma state Capitol, The Oklahoman reported.

The group contends if the Christian monument is allowed to remain in place, other monuments such as the satanic statue should also be allowed. The group said it has received a lot of support, much of it from Christians.

"It's really the best I could hope for. The response has been remarkable, amazing," group spokesman Lucien Greave told the newspaper. "I couldn't have hoped for this magnitude of positive response, but I'm really moved by it. I'm happy and encouraged by people. We're getting emails from people who are Christians who feel comfortable reaching out to us and supporting it. "They are starting to look past the labels to see what we're actually doing and what we actually stand for. I am surprised, but I'm very happily surprised," Greaves said. "We've gotten a flood of emails from more Oklahomans who stand behind this project and are willing to support it -- sign a petition, sign a waiver, you know, help establish our standing or help in any way they can."  

Somewhat Useless Information   

• The first eight athletes in each Winter Olympic event receive a diploma from the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The first three finishers receive both a medal and a diploma.

• The Winter Olympics were first held in 1924 in Chamonix, France. The modern Summer Olympics began in Athens in 1896.

• The Olympic motto is "Citius, Altius, Fortius," which in English means "Faster, Higher Stronger". Pierre de Coubertin, considered the father of the modern Olympic games, proposed it in 1894 after hearing the words said by Dominican priest Henri Didon years earlier.

• The last year that the Winter Games and Summer Games were held in the same year was 1992. The Summer Games were in Barcelona, Spain and the Winter Games were in Albertville, France. 

• The walls of the halfpipe for the Halfpipe Snowboarding event are 22 feet high. The halfpipe will also be used for Ski Halfpipe for the first time this Olympics.

• The 2018 Winter Olympics be held in PyeongChang, South Korea. It will be the first time the Winter Games are held in South Korea. The country hosted the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul in 1988.

Calendar Information        

Happening This Week:

26-31

Catholic Schools Week
Meat Week
National Cowboy Poetry Gathering Week
National Medical Group Practice Week

International Hoof Care Week
US National Snow Sculpting Week

Today Is                                                                      

·        Appreciate Your Social Security Check Day

·        Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day

·        Chinese New Year Year of the Horse

·        Fun at Work Day

·        Inspire Your Heart with Art Day

·        National Pre-school Fitness Day

Today’s Events through History  

1871 - Millions of birds fly over western SF, darkening the sky

1905 - 1st auto to exceed 100 mph (161 kph), A G MacDonald, Daytona Beach

1918 - A series of accidental collisions on a misty Scottish night leads to the loss 

     of two Royal Navy submarines with over a hundred lives, and damage to another 

     five British warships.

1984 - Edwin Newman retires from NBC News after 35 years

2001 - In the Netherlands a Scottish court convicts a Libyan and acquits another 

    for their part in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 which crashed into Lockerbie, 

    Scotland in 1988.

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

Carol Channing, actress (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Hello Dolly) is 93

Ernie Banks, "Mr Cub" Chicago Cubs, Hall-of-Famer is 83

James G Watt, US Secretary of Interior (1981-83) is 76

Nolan Ryan, pitcher (Mets, Angels, Astros) (7 no-hitters, 5,714 Ks) is 67

Minnie Driver, British actress and singer-songwriter (Good Will Hunting) is 43

Justin Timberlake, singer-songwriter (Sexyback, My Love) is 33

Remembered for being born today

1797 - Franz Peter Schubert, Austria, composer (Unfinished Symphony)

1872 - Zane Grey, American West novelist (Riders of the Purple Sage)

1892 - Eddie Cantor, comedian (Eddie Cantor Comedy Theater)

1902 - Tallulah Bankhead, actress (Lifeboat, Die Die Darling)

1915 - Garry Moore, [Thomas Garrison Morfit], host (I've Got a Secret)

1919 - Jackie Robinson, 1st black major league baseball player (Dodgers)

1921 - Mario Lanza, actor/singer (Great Caruso, Toast of New Orleans)

1923 - Norman Mailer, novelist (Naked & the Dead)

1934 - James Franciscus, actor (Mr Novak, Longstreet, Hunter)

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           

Samuel Goldwyn, Polish/English/US film magnate (MGM), 1974, @91

A. A. Milne, English author, 1956, @76

[Bonnie Prince Charlie] Charles E Stuart, English pretender to the throne, 1788, @67

Guy Fawkes, convicted in the "Gunpowder Plot", executed, 1606, @35

Eddie Slovik, 1st US executed for desertion since Civil War, 1945, @25

Brain Teasers

1.) Blades of Glory 2.) Superman Returns 3.) Lord of the Rings 4.) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind 5.) Fantastic Four 6.) Jaws

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  §