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Flagstaff Almanac:

Week: 01 / Day: 004   

Today: L 18°…H 52°… Ave. humidity: 46%

Wind: ave:   14mph; Gusts:  24mph  

Average Low: 16° Record Low:  -22° (1971)

Average High: 42° Record High:  64° (1927)

Quote of the Day

 

Today’s Historical Highlights

1754 - Columbia University founded, as Kings College (NYC)

1863 - 4 wheeled roller skates patented by James Plimpton of NY

1865 - The New York Stock Exchange opens its first permanent headquarters 

1884 - Last sighting of an eastern cougar (Ontario)

1887 - Thomas Stevens is 1st man to bicycle around the world (SF-SF)

1893 - US pres Cleveland grants amnesty to Mormon polygamy

1904 - Supreme Court rules Puerto Ricans cannot be denied admission to US

1936 - Billboard magazine publishes its 1st music hit parade

1944 - Ralph Bunche appointed 1st Negro official in US State Department

1962 - 1st automated (unmanned) subway train (NYC)

1965 - LBJ's "Great Society" State of the Union Address

1974 - Nixon refuses to hand over tapes subpoenaed by Watergate Committee

1999 - Former professional wrestler Jesse Ventura is sworn in as governor of Minnesota.

2006 - Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel suffers a second, apparently more serious stroke

2007 - Nancy Pelosi as the first female Speaker of the House in U.S. history

♫  Today’s Birthdays: ♫   

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

 

My Free Rambling Thoughts   

Having a hard time realizing that it is Friday…with the trip to Chicago, the holidays in the middle of the week, for some reason this just doesn’t feel like a Friday. So happy to see that I’m living in place where the weather is so great in early January.

 

I got my Great Decisions reading materials for the year this afternoon. We should be having some very good discussions this year. We will be starting in January, but not sure when, as I am the only one who has made contact with our scheduler. Our group is always an interesting, educational, and stimulating evening with lots of points of view shared.

 

Listening to CNN it looks like the US is finally going to have some real open debate about the use of marijuana in the US. Now that Colorado has legalized the use of marijuana for recreational use, both sides are beginning to talk logically, for the first time. Everyone seems to agree, at least so far, that it needs to be controlled, limited to ‘adults’, the need to have a better test for intoxication while driving, recognizing that many Americans (mostly poor and inner-city) have had their lives ruined by being imprisoned for use of marijuana and that more real scientific research needs to be done. It will certainly be educational, no matter how the laws change.

Game  Center (answers at the end of post)

Brain Teasers

Below are 3 pairs of words. Find the words that fit in the middle of each pair of words to create two new words, one front-ended and one back-ended.
Example: EVER - ______ - HORN Answer: EVER - GREEN - HORN

SLIP ___________ LINED BREAD __________ CASE OTHER __________ CRACK

Lifestyle  Substance:     

Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

• Albert Camus, Nobel Prize Speech 1957

• Gerry Rafferty - Baker Street (Long Version)

• Night Court - John Larroquette as Dan Fielding

• T.S. Eliot interview

Odd Lawsuits…

Shows No Compassion

Tomas Delgado was driving over the speed limit when he hit and killed a child on a bike. Fortunately for him, a loophole saved him. Since the child didn't have reflectors or protective gear, Delgado was not in trouble with the law. After getting away with murder, Delgado decided to sue the boy's family for the damages to his Audi. He later dropped the lawsuit.

OK Then…

 

Harper’s Index 

Number of the 35 executions in the United States since 1977 that occurred outside the South: 2

Unusual Fact of the Day

The timing, size, and stream of bubbles in a glass of champagne are influenced by dirt and "gas pockets" on the side of the glass.

Joke-of-the-day

Little Emily was complaining to her mother that her stomach hurt. Her mother replied, “That’s because it's empty. Maybe you should try putting something in it."

The next day, the pastor was over at Emily's family's house for lunch. He mentioned having his head hurt, to which Emily immediately replied, "That's because it's empty. Maybe you should try putting something in it."  

Rules of Thumb:   

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess

FLYING A KITE

A wind that rustles leaves and that you can barely feel on your face is blowing from 4 to 7 miles an hour. A wind moving about 12 miles an hour will keep tree leaves in constant motion. This is the upper limit for most kite flying. If the wind is lifting loose paper off the ground and raising dust, it is too strong for the average kite.    

Yeah, It Really Happened

KUWAIT CITY - A Kuwaiti woman filed for divorce from her husband, citing the "shocking sight" of him using bread to eat his peas, court record state. the Kuwaiti daily al-Qabas said the court heard the woman was disgusted by the "shocking sight" of her husband using his bread instead of a fork to eat his peas and decided his poor table manners were grounds for divorce, Gulf News reported Monday. Al-Qabas said the filing followed another divorce where the woman told the court her husband insisted on squeezing the toothpaste out from the middle of the tube. "We are always arguing," she was quoted as saying. "I keep telling him that he should squeeze in the end of the tube, but he stubbornly refuses and keeps squeezing it in the middle. He is so obstinate." Another recent divorce involved a man deciding to end his marriage when his wife refused to bring him a glass of water, saying it was a job for their domestic helper. A Kuwaiti legal expert told al-Qabas divorces in the country often result from couples being unable to accept one another's habits. The expert said couple's should take time to get to know one another prior to their marriages so they avoid unpleasant surprises later that could lead to divorce. 

Somewhat Useless Information   

An extremely strange historical coincidence is that Abraham Lincoln was shot  in April 14, 1865,  just after he had created the Secret Service. Secret Service is an American federal law enforcement agency that is part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Secret Service started to investigate  among others murders, as well as  bank robberies or illegal gambling. However, Congress informally requested that the Secret Service provide presidential protection after the assassination of President William McKinley in 1901.

The disco album by Meco “Star Wars and Other Galactic Funk” released in 1977 had various musical themes from the Star Wars soundtrack and is arranged as instrumental disco music. When the single ”Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band” was released in 1977,  it hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100, holding on to the spot for two weeks.

Calendar Information        

Happening This Week:

1-7

New Year's Resolutions Week
Celebration of Life Week
Diet Resolution Week
Silent Record Week
Someday We'll Laugh About This Week

Today Is                                                                      

·        Dimpled Chad Day

·        Pop Music Chart Day

·        Tom Thumb Day

·        Trivia Day

·        World Braille Day

·        World Hypnotism Day

·         

·        Independence Day (Myanmar-1948-from UK)

·        Admission Day (Utah-1896-45^th state)

Today’s Events through History  

1874 - Eskiminzin of the ARAVAIPA APACHE, survivor of Camp Grant massacre 

     and arrested as a "military precaution", escapes from San Carlos with many of his band.

1925 - French psychologist Emil Coué brings his self-esteem therapy to US "Every 

     day in every way I am getting better & better"

1984 - "Night Court" starring Harry Anderson premieres on NBC TV

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

Don Shula, winningest NFL coach (Miami Dolphins) is 84

Dyan Cannon, Mrs Cary Grant/actress (Heaven Can Wait) is 77

Remembered for being born today

1785 - Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm, Germany, philologist, folklorist, editor of "Grimm's 

     Fairy Tales"

1797 - Wilhelm Beer, Germany, amateur astronomer (constructed 1st Moon map)

1809 - Louis Braille, Coupvray France, developer (reading system for blind)

1896 - Everett Dirksen, politician (Sen-R-Ill)

1916 - Slim Gaillard [Bulee], Scotland, American Jazz singer/songwriter (d. 1991)

1935 - Floyd Patterson, heavyweight champ (Oly-gold-1952)

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           

Iron Eyes Cody, actor, Native American Imposter in 1999 @94

Cornelius Vanderbilt, US robber baron, in 1877 @82

T. S. Eliot, poet and Nobel laureate, of emphysema in 1965 @76

Gerry Rafferty, British musician and songwriter, of liver failure in 2011 @63

Gabriel Cramer, Swiss mathematician (paradox of Cramer), in 1752 @47

Albert Camus, French author (Stranger), in an auto accident in 1960 @46

Brain Teasers

SLIP - STREAM - LINED
BREAD - BASKET - CASE
OTHER - WISE - CRACK

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  §