2-19-14

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Flagstaff Almanac:

Week: 08 / Day: 050   

Today: L 27°…H 59°… Ave. humidity: 44%

Wind: ave:   13mph; Gusts:  22mph  

Average Low: 19° Record Low:  -6° (1942)

Average High: 46° Record High:  65° (1981)

Quote of the Day

 

Today’s Historical Highlights

1600 - Peruvian stratovolcano Huaynaputina explodes-most violent eruption in the recorded history of South America.

1807 - VP Aaron Burr arrested in Alabama for treason; later found innocent

1856 - Tin-type camera patented

1861 - Russian Tsar Alexander II abolishes serfdom

1878 - Thomas Alva Edison patents gramophone (phonograph)

1906 - WK Kellogg & Ch Bolin find Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Co

1913 - 1st prize inserted into a Cracker Jack box

1928 - 2nd Winter Olympic games close at St Moritz, Switzerland

1968 - 1st US Teachers strike (Florida)

1977 - Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours" album released

1984 - 14th winter Olympic games close at Sarajevo, Yugoslavia

1984 - 1st brother combo to win Gold & Silver in same event at Olympics 

     (Phil & Steve Mahre-Slalom)

2001 - Oklahoma City bombing museum dedicated at Oklahoma City National Memorial.

♫  Today’s Birthdays: ♫   

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

 

My Free Rambling Thoughts   

Another beautiful weather day. I stayed up late last night watching the Olympics, and then some sci-fi movies. Didn’t get to bed until after 1a, but enjoyed the movies.

 

Back in the day I found Ted Nugent’s music enjoyable. Later, when he was talking about hunting, I was still his fan. Then he went off the deep end with the 2^nd Amendment crazies and I quit listening to his talk…and had long since listening to his music. Today he really went bonkers with his Anti-Obama talk. The man called our President ‘a sub-human mongrel’…at a campaign event for a hopeful Texas Governor candidate…and the candidate didn’t say anything to step back. This is crazy, not to mention unpatriotic.

Game  Center (answers at the end of post)

Brain Teasers

When you curtail a word, you remove the last letter and still have a valid word. You will be given clues for the two words, longer word first.
Example: Begin -> Heavenly body  Answer: The words are Start and Star.

1. To look for -> To perceive 2. Use the mind -> Slender, narrow 3. Enclosed army vehicle -> A colour; darkening of the skin 4. A colour -> Thin, pointed piece of metal 5. Tree covering -> Metal rod 6. Timber; board -> Design; a scheme developed in advance 7. Bare, plain; blunt -> Celestial night light 8. Descended in water -> Celestial night light with orbiting planets

Lifestyle  Substance:     

Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

• Fleetwood Mac-Go My Own Way

• Lee Marvin - Wandering Star

• Lou Christie - Lightning Strikes

• Smokey Robinson & The Miracles-The Tears Of A Clown

• Twin Olympic Skiing Medalists - Phil & Steve Mahre

Remembering TV’s great shows:

“The Ed Sullivan Show": From the sublime (Elvis, the Beatles) to the ridiculous (Topo Gigio, Señor Wences), the king of variety put on a really big show.

Words Shakespeare invented

one fell swoop
Macbeth Act IV Scene 3MACDUFF:He has no children. All my pretty ones?Did you say all? O hell-kite! All?What, all my pretty chickens and their damAt one fell swoop?

Bizarre Punishments

The Cone Of Shame

As we have seen, bizarre school-related punishments are apparently very popular in Florida and the “Cone of Shame” that students were forced to wear in one teacher’s classroom is no different. After watching the movie Upwith her freshmen science students, Laurie Bailey-Cutkomp brought in her own Cone of Shame to put on students as punishment. The Cone consisted of a plastic dog collar that Bailey-Cutkomp obtained from her previous veterinarian job, where it was used to stop pets from disturbing their wounds. While she claims it was just a joke and that she never intended to truly embarrass her students, the school board definitely wasn’t as amused—especially after those wearing the collar had their pictures taken and uploaded to Facebook by other students. The use of the Cone lessened after criticism began rolling in and Bailey-Cutkomp was quickly put on unpaid suspension, with the possibility of losing her job.

Strange Obsessions of famous people

Soren Kierkegaard--Family Curse

Before Kierkegaard (1813–1855) had reached the age of 25, five of his siblings and both of his parents had died. Just a few years before, his father had confessed to his son that he was destined to watch all of his children, including Kierkegaard, die before him because he had brought God’s wrath down upon them when he had cursed God as a young boy. Kierkegaard fully accepted his father’s conclusion about their family’s bad luck and he accepted the idea that he was facing an early death.

Although his father died in 1838, with Kierkegaard still alive and well, Kierkegaard still believed that he was cursed and that God would take his life at an early age. This knowledge sparked Kierkegaard to write prolifically in an attempt to say everything before his early passing. He preceded one of his early works, written shortly after his father’s death, with a telling quotationfrom King Lear, Act 5, Scene 4, a part of which reads: “A guilt must weigh on the entire family, God’s punishment must be upon it; it was meant to disappear, expunged by God’s mighty hand, deleted like an unsuccessful attempt.”

Like Camus, Kierkegaard’s fears came to fruition when he died in 1855. He was just 42 years old.

OK Then…

 

Harper’s Index 

Portion of wages paid in Manhattan that come from the financial-services industry: 1/3

Unusual Fact of the Day

Clifton Keith Hillegass is the “Cliff” behind Cliff's Notes. He started his company in 1958 when he published 16 Shakespearian study guides.

Joke-of-the-day

It was snowing heavily and blowing to the point that visibility was almost zero when the little lady got off work. She made her way to her car and wondered how she was going to make it home. She sat in her car while it warmed up and thought about her situation.

She finally remembered her daddy's advice that if she got caught in a blizzard; she should wait for a snowplow to come by and follow it. That way she would not get stuck in a snowdrift. This made her feel much better and sure enough in a little while a snowplow went by and she started to follow it. As she follows the snow plow she was feeling very smug as they continued and she was not having any problem with the blizzard conditions.

After quite some time had passed she was somewhat surprised when the snow plow stopped and the driver got out and came back to her car and signaled for her to roll down her window. The snowplow driver wanted to know if she was all right as she had been following him for a long time. She said that she was fine and told him of her daddy's advice to follow a snowplow when caught in a blizzard.

The driver replied that it was OK with him and she could continue if she wanted but he was done with the Wal-Mart parking lot and was going over to K-Mart next.  

Rules of Thumb:   

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess

GOING INTO DERMATOLOGY

You need one dermatologist for every 40,000 people.    

Yeah, It Really Happened

-- World's Laziest Dog Sitter: Tyler Smith, 23, was charged in December with violating the city animal care ordinance in Greenville, S.C., after a photograph was posted on Facebook of his father's dog being lowered by rope from the second-story balcony of an apartment. According to the posting, it was time for the dog to make a call of nature, but it was raining, and Smith preferred not to go downstairs with him. [Associated Press via Post and Courier (Charleston, S.C.), 12-17-2013

Somewhat Useless Information   

 This is going to sound a bit weird, but you can stop scissors from sticking by using coffee grounds. Unused coffee grounds act as a natural abrasive that scrapes off any residue that has built up. Put on a pair of gardening gloves so you don't cut yourself, then work the grounds into the scissor blades, paying extra attention to where they join together. When you're done wash your scissors with soap and water, dry and they'll be just as good as new.

Freezing them slows the breakdown of the capsules in the stomach, reducing fishy burps. This is according to Mayo Clinic researchers.

Spill a some wine on your clothing? No worries...simply wet a cloth with warm water and blot it on the soiled area, repeat process with club soda - the bubbles in the club soda will help break up the stain. Then wash as usual.

Calendar Information        

Happening This Week:
☼13-19☼

World Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy Awareness Week9 
☼14-21☼

National Condom Week 
National Nestbox Week
NCCDP Alzheimer's & Dementia Staff Education Week
☼16-22☼

Brotherhood / Sisterhood Week 
Build A Better Trade Show Image Week)
Through With The Chew
National Date (fruit) Week
National Justice for Animals Week
National Engineers Week
National Entrepreneurship Week

Today Is                                                                      

·        Chocolate Mint Day

·        Iwo Jima Day (Landing) International

·        Tug-of-War Day Single Tasking Day

+++++

·        Japanese-Amerian Internment-- Executive Order 9066-1942

Today’s Events through History  

1945 - Brotherhood Day-1st celebrated

1949 - 1st Bollingen Prize for poetry awarded to Ezra Pound

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

Smokey Robinson, R&B singer-songwriter (The Miracles-Tears of a Clown) is 74

Lou Christie [Lugee Sacco], singer-songwriter (Lightning Striking Again) is 70

Jeff Daniels, actor, musician is 59

Seal, English vocalist/songwriter (Killer, Crazy, Kiss by a Rose) is 51

Justine Bateman, actress (Mallory-Family Ties, Satisfaction) is 48

Benicio Del Toro, Puerto Rico, actor (Usual Suspects) is 47

Haylie Duff, actress, producer is 29

Remembered for being born today

1473 - Nicolaus Copernicus, Polish mathematician and astronomer

1893 - Cedric Hardwicke, Stourbridge England, actor (Richard III)

1911 - Merle Oberon, Calcutta India, actress (Assignment Foreign Legion)

1924 - Lee Marvin, actor (Paint Your Wagon, Cat Ballou)

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           

1997 - Deng Xiaoping, head (Chinese Communist Party), 1997, @92

1998 – Grandpa [Louis Marshall] Jones, comic/banjo (Hee Haw), 1998, @84

1962 - Georgios Papanikolaou, Greek doctor, inventor of the Pap smear, 1962, @78  

2003 - Johnny PayCheck (Donald Eugene Lytle), country singer/songwriter, 

     asthma, 2003, @64

Brain Teasers

1. Seek -> See 2. Think -> Thin 3. Tank -> Tan 4. Pink -> Pin 5. Bark -> Bar 6. Plank -> Plan 7. Stark -> Star 8. Sunk -> Sun

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  §