2-20-14

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Flagstaff Almanac:

Week: 08 / Day: 051   

Today: L 25°…H 57°… Ave. humidity: 44%

Wind: ave:   27mph; Gusts:  47mph  

Average Low: 19° Record Low:  -11° (1955)

Average High: 46° Record High:  65° (1977)

Quote of the Day

Today’s Historical Highlights

1472 - Orkney and Shetland are left by Norway to Scotland, due to a dowry payment.

1673 - 1st recorded wine auction held (London)

1725 - 10 sleeping Indians scalped by whites in New Hampshire for £100 a scalp bounty

1745 - Jacobite troops occupy Fort Augustus, Scotland

1746 - Bonnie Prince Charlie occupies Inverness Castle

1835 - Concepcion, Chile, destroyed by earthquake; 5,000 die

1839 - Congress prohibits dueling in District of Columbia

1872 - Metropolitan Museum of Art opens (NYC)

1895 - Congress authorizes a US mint at Denver, Colorado

1929 - American Samoa organizes as territory of US

1952 - "African Queen" opens at Capitol Theater in NYC

1962 - John Glenn is 1st American to orbit Earth (Friendship 7)

2013 - Estonia becomes the 1st country to establish national system of fast chargers for electric cars

♫  Today’s Birthdays: ♫   

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

 

My Free Rambling Thoughts   

Wednesday was good…until I got a jury duty notice. I know it is part of my civil responsibility, and will show up if there is a trial. The 1^st call is for Mar 6 that is no big deal, but if that trial doesn’t happen, I’m on the hook for the next 25 days…and part of that time I will be in Cuba. Let’s hope I get it over with quickly so that I don’t have to tell the city that I am going to Cuba. It ain’t none of their business. My Cuba trip is a cultural exchange with the people of Cuba, but some small minded people might not see it that way. After all I am a CU grad.

 

We did our weekly lunch today, after a little hassle. We couldn’t decide on a place and then got mixed up.  I went to one place, Mary and Cheryl to another. When I didn’t arrive, they called, and luckily it was only about a mile away, so I got there a little late.  They say it is my mistake, I say it is theirs. Anyway we had a great lunch, good conversation, and good time. Mary is going to take a 14 day river cruise in Sept. to St. Petersburg. Good for her. Cheryl is planning a long trip to Ann Arbor in June. Her son and family may join her for part of the trip. Good for them. Mary invited us to Oregon for a week in July to her beach house…I’ll see if that becomes a possibility.  

Game  Center (answers at the end of post)

Brain Teasers

Six words have had their sticky things removed. The sticky things have been placed into Group A. The remaining letters of each word have been placed into Group B. Your task is to reconstitute the words by merging each sticky thing with the proper set of letters. Other than merging the two groups together, there is no rearranging of the letters. Example: sand + pne = spanned (SpANneD).

Group A: glue, gum, jam, paste, tape, tar Group B: aricutr, hete, oret, ournlis, rai, srtoshre

Lifestyle  Substance:     

Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

• African Queen clip (1951)

• Buffy Sainte-Marie - Universal Soldier

• Hunter S. Thompson & Hell's Angels

• J. Geils Band – Centerfold

• John Glenn launch, Walter Cronkite " Go, baby ! "

• Nancy Wilson - Teach Me Tonight

• Sidney Poitier winning Best Actor

Remembering TV’s great shows:

"Roseanne": We worshipped the domestic goddess and her perfectly imperfect brood. Unlike the Conners, viewers won the lottery long before the show's ill-conceived final season.

Bizarre Punishments

Eating Lunch Off The Floor

No use crying over spilled milk, right? Well except for students of the Charles Sumner Elementary School in New Jersey, apparently. In 2009, fifth graders at the school were forced to eat their lunch off the floor as punishment for a student spilling a jug of water while refilling a cooler. In the subsequent lawsuit, the school’s vice-principal denied the story, claiming the real reason was a lack of seats—which seems a bit odd considering that the students weren’t even allowed to use trays, instead being given only a small piece on paper to separate their lunch from the disgusting cafeteria floor. School officials even threatened the children that they would be forced to stay there longer if they told anyone about their punishment.

The lawsuit grew even more controversial when it was discovered that the students singled out by the African-American and Caucasian teachers wereall of Hispanic descent. The bizarre punishment continued for 10 days, and included students that were absent the day that the water was spilled. In the end, seven of the students affected split a $500,000 settlement.

Strange Obsessions of famous people

Karl Marx--Frantic Idea Generation

Karl Marx (1818–1883) was the co-author of the seminal work The Communist Manifesto. Although he is considered one of the most influential theorists of the 20th century, Karl Marx’s personal life was filled with chaos and disorder. Partially because of his dire financial situation—which largely resulted from his and his family’s expulsion from France because of his political writings—and partially because of his personality, Marx would work intensely, but only in bursts of productivity that were often followed by bouts of exhaustion, illness, and a cessation of work and missed deadlines. Contributing to the chaos, Marx often started a work just to put it down half-finished when he wanted to begin another.

Marx’s inner chaos, however, is best exemplified by the compulsive manner with which he generated ideas for his philosophical works. While working, Marx would put an idea to paper and then he would stand up and begin frantically walking around his work table. When an idea eventually struck him, he would quickly sit down, write out the idea, and then begin the process over again. It’s little wonder that Marx would often collapse from exhaustion after a long work day.

OK Then…

 

Harper’s Index 

• Percentage by which NYC’s homeless shelter population has increased in May Bloomberg: 65

• Portion of the city’s shelter population who are children: 2/5

Unusual Fact of the Day

School buses are some of the safest rides around. Individuals are 80 times more likely to be killed while walking to school than while taking the bus.

Joke-of-the-day

Why did the woman only change her baby’s diaper once a month?

On the package it read "good for up to 15 pounds"

Somewhat Useless Information   

• Have you ever wondered why do people offer chocolate to each other on Valentine’ s day? Studies have shown that the more chocolate you eat the higher libidos you’ ll have. But why? Chocolate has a strong effect on our brain. It contains serotonin, a chemical that makes you happy and thus more inclined to show your partner some affection, as well as caffeine, which keeps you awake. Moreover, phenylethylamine is said to be the real ‘weapon’, as high levels of phenylethylamine are associated with love, while heartbreak can cause phenylethylamine levels to drop dramatically. However, critics say the phenylethylamine is unlike to have real effect in bedroom, as it is digested too quickly.

• Coca-Cola was first produced by the Coca-Cola Company of Atlanta, Georgia and was initially intented to be a medicine when it was invented in the late 19th century by John Pemberton. Businessman Asa Griggs Candler bought out Coca-Cola  and his marketing tactics led Coke to its dominance of the world soft-drink market throughout the 20th century. The first bottling of Coca-Cola occurred in Vicksburg, Mississippi,  in 1891 and the original bottles were Biedenharn bottles, very different from the much later hobble-skirt design.

• There is a country in Southeast Asia where people get arrested if they eat chewing gum and the only case that a chewing gum is allowed, is that of therapeutic value. This country is Singapore and under the Singapore–United States Free Trade Agreement and the “Regulation of Imports and Exports (Chewing Gum) Regulations” there is ban on importing chewing gum into Singapore. Gum can be bought from a doctor, but must be prescribed. The cause of this ban is found in vandalisms that had occurred such as spent gum in mailboxes, inside keyholes and even on elevator buttons.

• James Dean, the famous American actor, was a cultural icon of teenage disillusionment, mainly expressed through the film ‘Rebel Without a Cause’ (1955), in which he starred as troubled Los Angeles teenager Jim Stark.

• Dean had an intense life and died extremely young at the age of 24 after a car crash, which cemented his legendary status. Five quotes of him are the following ones:

• “The only greatness for man is immortality”

• “There is no way to be truly great in this world. We are all impaled on the crook of conditioning”

• “The gratification comes in the doing, not in the results”

• “If a man can bridge the gap between life and death, if he can live on after he’s dead, then maybe he was a great man”

• “Only the gentle are ever really strong”

Calendar Information        

Happening This Week:
☼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                                                                      

·        Introduce A Girl to Engineering Day

·        Love Your Pet Day

·        Northern Hemisphere Hoodie Hoo Day

·        The Great American Spit Out

·        UN World Day for Social Justice

·        World Day for Social Justice

Today’s Events through History  

1944 - Batman & Robin comic strip premieres in newspapers

1947 - Chemical mixing error causes explosion that destroys 42 blocks in LA

1988 - Brian Boitano wins Olympic gold medal in figure skating

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

Gloria Vanderbilt, don't my jeans look great (poor little rich girl) is 90

Sidney Poitier, actor (Porgy & Bess, A Raisin in the Sun) is 87

Bobby Unser, auto racer (1968, 75, 81 Indianapolis 500) is 80

Nancy Wilson, jazz vocalist (Feel Like Making Love) is 77

Buffy Sainte-Marie, Maine, folksinger (Now That the Buffalo Are Gone) is 73

J[erome] Geils, NYC, rock guitarist (J Geils Band-Centerfold) is 68

Sandy Duncan, actress (Hogan Family) is 68

Peter Strauss, actor (Rich Man Poor Man) is 67

Patty Hearst Shaw, SF, famous kidnap hostage (Tanya) is 60

Kelsey Grammer, Virgin Islands, actor (Fraiser Crane-Cheers/Fraiser) is 59

Charles Barkley, NBA forward (Phoenix, Rockets, Oly-gold-96) is 51

William Baldwin, actor (Backdraft, Sliver, Flatliners) is 51

French Stewart, actor (Harry Solomon-Third Rock From the Sun) is 50

Cindy Crawford, super model (Sports Illustrated Swimsuit) is 48

Rihanna, Barbadian singer is 26

Remembered for being born today

1893 - Russel Crouse, journalist/novelist/playwright (Life with Father)

1902 - Ansel Adams, photographer (1966 ASMP Award)

1914 - John Daly, South Africa, newscaster/TV game show host (What's My Line)

1921 - Amanda Blake, [Beverly], actress (Kitty Russell-Gunsmoke)

1925 - Robert Altman, director (Nashville, M*A*S*H)

1967 - Kurt Cobain, rock vocalist (Nirvana)/husband of Courtney Love

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           

Curt Gowdy, American sportscaster, 2006, @86

Alexander Haig, American soldier and politician, 2010, @85

Chester W Nimitz, US admiral (WW II), 1966, @80

Frederick Douglass, escaped slave, anti-slavery leader, heart attack, 1895, @77

Walter Winchell, writer/actor, cancer, 1972, @74

Hunter S. Thompson, American journalist and author, suicide, 2005, @67

Robert E Peary, US pole explorer (North Pole, 6/4/1909), 1920, @63

Dick York, actor (Bewitched), emphysema, 1992, @63

Sandra Dee, American actress, alcoholism, 2005, @62

Gene Siskel, American film critic, brain tumor, 1999, @53

Brain Teasers

glue + aricutr = agriculture (aGricuLtUrE) gum + oret = gourmet (GoUrMet) jam + ournlis = journalism (JournAlisM) paste + rai = parasite (PAraSiTE) tape + srtoshre = stratosphere (sTrAtosPhEre) tar + hete = theater (TheAteR)

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  §