4-26-14

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Flagstaff Almanac: Day: 116  / Week: 17 

Today: L 37°…H 63°… Ave. humidity: 35%
    Wind: ave:   5mph; Gusts:  36mph  
    Average High: 61° Record High:  78° (1996)
    Average Low: 29° Record Low:  13° (1961)
     
Quote of the Day

Today’s Historical Highlights

1607 - 1st British to establish an American colony land at Cape Henry, Va

1654 - Jews are expelled from Brazil
1721 - Smallpox vaccination 1st administrated
1755 - 1st Russian university opens (Moscow)
1906 - 1st motion pictures shown in Hawaii
1906 - A law is passed which grants the President to pick the CHEROKEE Chief.
1907 - Jamestown, Va Tercentenary Exposition opens
1929 - 1st non-stop England to India flight lands
1941 - A tradition begins, 1st organ at a baseball stadium (Chicago Cubs)
1959 - Cuba invades Panama
1977 - NY's famed disco Studio 54 opens
1984 - President Reagan visits China
1986 - Worst nuclear disaster, 4th reactor at Chernobyl USSR explodes, 31 die
1992 - Alex Haley, (Roots), wins 1992 Ellis Island Award, posthumously
1995 - Coors Field, opens in Denver, Rockies beat Mets 11-9 in 14 innings

♫  Today’s Birthdays: ♫  

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

 

My Free Rambling Thoughts   

Nice day until about noon, then the wind started. Will keep going until the snow arrives tomorrow. Really not looking forward to a snowstorm, but we need the moisture, and at this point I’m OK with anyway it arrives. Every day there are small fires within and just outside this little mountain town. The in-town ones are being blamed on an arsonist, but I figure it is illegal campers, since there is no outdoor camping within our city limits. Our local shelter suddenly closed its doors a couple of weeks ago leaving the homeless few places to go. Some anonymous donor from Phoenix donated enough money to reopen the shelter until fire season has passed.  While many in this town are against the second home residents, it was this person, not locals, who stepped up to help our city.

With the warmer weather, there are lots more people standing at parking lot exits with cardboard signs, claiming they need help. One guy in particular is driving me crazy. He is always near the Safeway parking lot, with a plastic gas can and a sign that says ‘need gas’.  He has been there the last few times I have wandered over to Safeway. Either he is not very bright since standing there for a couple of weeks trying to get gas hasn’t worked or he is very bright and is making a killing with his little prop. I go for the second.

Mary got back to town and we went over to the grand opening of REI. It opened at 9a with free breakfast at 8a. We got there about 8:15 and there were about 300 people in line. The 1^st 200 got free gifts, so we left as I was not up for standing in the very long line figuring that it would be like sardines when the store opened.

I went to lunch with one of my old bosses today. I shared pics of Cuba and he just got back from Indiana and NC where he and his wife were visiting his in-laws. He and his wife are headed for St. Martin in July…sounds great. He was a BIA guy, then a tribal guy as Superintendent to all the Navajo Nation schools. He retired from the tribe at 65—a few months ago—and there was no way he could keep his health insurance from the tribe. He is in the process of signing up to be on his wife’s BIA policy, but open season is a long way off. So he only has Medicare right now plus tribal IHS. He just finished up radiation for a leg problem and needs an MRI. He is trying to get IHS to cover the MRI since Medicare told him they don’t cover it since it is considered preventative. One would think…that an MRI is a lot cheaper than possible future cancer treatments, but they don’t see it that way. He can afford the MRI, but it really is the principle of the thing. So glad I was able to keep my BCBS when I left the BIA, even though it ain’t cheap, it is a great secondary insurance.

Game  Center (answers at the end of post)

Brain Teasers
In this teaser your task is to discover words, names and phrases relating to the holiday season.
You are to delete a few letters in each unrelated phrase in order to show the holiday. The remaining letters will be in the right order.
For example: 1. EACH WRIST MASHED becomes: **CH *RIST MAS***
1. FROGS TRY THEM SO NO WORM CAN (delete 7 letters)
2. CLINT TILED RED HUMMER BODY (delete 7 letters)
3. SPRINT FACE OFF PREFACE (delete 7 letters)
4. THE CREEP WISHES A MENU (delete 7 letters)

Lifestyle  Substance:     

Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

Bobby Rydell

Burns & Allen - Gracie Tells a Story

George Jones - LIVE "He Stopped Loving Her Today"

Jet Li VS Wu Shu Master

Vitameatavegamin- Lucy Classic

OK Then…

Harper’s Index 

Percentage of self-identified Tea Part conservatives who believe President Obama is ‘destroying the country’: 71

Of all other self-identified conservatives: 6

Unusual Fact of the Day

Late popcorn king Orville Redenbacher wasn't just a TV spokesman. He spent his life developing hybrid varieties of corn that would produce the best popping kernels.      

Joke-of-the-day

One day an Antartian decided to face her fears and go riding on a horse.

It was easy for her to get on and she was doing just fine until the horse started to go faster.
She started slipping off the saddle. She couldn’t hold on to the horse and her head started hitting the ground.
She was almost knocked unconscious when the Wal-Mart manager came out and unplugged the machine.

Rules of Thumb:   

ICE SKATING

You need to have three consecutive days of sub-20-degree weather before a pond will be safe for skating.

Yeah, It Really Happened

Forget a degree. Stupid pays; sometimes. For the jerkoff in the last issue who was busted for pissing in a drinking water reservoir, stupid did not pay, but for the idiot who stood two feet from a racing freight train in order to take a picture of himself, or a "stiffy" (or whatever the hell it's called), stupid did pay. Why? Because the conductor booted him in the head at 30 miles-per-hour.

You have probably seen the 10 second video. 22-year-old named Jared Michael Frank is standing in front (almost in front) of the train when you can hear a voice call out a warning and half a second later...WHAM! Boot to the head. As you can see in the video, the train's engineer thought the close-to-a-speeding-train picture was bad idea.
You might be wondering how getting kicked in the head at 30 miles-per-hour pays off. If you were guessing that the payday came from a lawsuit you would be wrong. It turns out the incident happened in Peru and Mr. Frank is Canadian. Liability laws don't translate well from Peruvian to Canadian.
Apparently media companies are in a rush to piggyback on the video and its 22 million YouTube views, and they're offering Frank thousands of dollars in advertising and licensing opportunities.
YouTube's official monthly figures haven't been totaled yet, but Frank could bank anywhere from $30,000 to $250,000.
"I'm a little worried, but I have a decent relationship with the licensing company, so I trust them," Frank said.
So what is the lesson? Slow and steady wins the race? Look before you leap? The better part of valor is caution? Or maybe put yourself in danger in the stupidest way possible AS LONG AS YOU RECORD IT and maybe, just maybe, you can make your fortune.

Somewhat Useless Information   

Mosquitoes are known from as far back as the Triassic Period – 400 million years ago. They are known from North America from the Cretaceous – 100 million years ago.

There are about 2,700 species of mosquito. There are 176 species in the United States.

Dark clothing has been shown to attract some species of mosquitoes more than lighter colored clothing.

Movement increased mosquito biting up to 50% in some research tests.

Mosquitoes fly an estimated 1 to 1.5 miles per hour.

Bigger people are often more attractive to mosquitoes because they are larger targets and they produce more mosquito attractants, namely CO2 and lactic acid.

Calendar Information        

Today Is

Audubon Day 
Bob Wills Day   
Do Dah Day (Pasadena) 
Eeyore's Birthday Day 
Hug An Australian Day
International Marconi Day 
National Dance Day 
National Go Birding Day
National Help A Horse Day
National Herb Day 
National Kids and Pets Day  
National Rebuilding Day 
National Pretzel Day  
Penguin Day  
Richter Scale Day
Save The Frogs Day   
Sense of Smell Day   
World Day for Animals in Laboratories 
World Healing Day 
World Intellectual Property Day 
World Veterinary Day
World Tai Chi & Qigong Day
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Confederate Memorial Day (Ga,Fl)
Union Day (Tanzania-1964)                                                                      
   

Today’s Events through History  

1819 - Odd Fellows Lodge forms

1957 - Jamestown, Va 350th Anniversary Festival opens
1991 - 23 killed in Kansas & Oklahoma by tornadoes
1992 - "Who's The Boss" final episode after 8 years on ABC TV

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

I[eoh] M[ing] Pei, Canton, China, architect is 97

Carol Burnett, comedian/actress is 81
Duane Eddy, Phoenix, country singer is 76
Bobby Rydell, rock singer (Bye Bye Birdie) is 72
Jet Li, Beijing, Chinese actor and martial artist is 51
Tom Welling, actor (Smallville) is 37
Channing Tatum, actor, producer, model is 34

Remembered for being born today

570-632 - Muhammed, founder of Islam, according to the Shi'a sect. 

1711-1776 - David Hume, English empiricist/philosopher
1822-1903 - Frederick Law Olmsted, landscape architect (designed Central Park)
1906-1964 - Gracie Allen, Mrs George Burns, comedienne (George Burns Show)

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           

Mason Adams, American actor, 2005, @86

Jack Valenti, political advisor and film executive, 2007, @85
George Jones, country musician, 2013, @81
Lucille Ball, comedienne (I Love Lucy), heart attack, 1989, @78
[William] Broderick Crawford, actor (Highway Patrol), strokes, 1986, @74
Jim Davis, actor (Jock Ewing-Dallas), cancer, 1981, @65
John Wilkes Booth, assassin, shot dead, 1865, @26

Brain Teasers                                         

1. FRO - S T - Y THE - S - NO W -- M - AN (Frosty the Snowman)
2. - LI -T T - LED R -- - UMMER BO - Y (Little Drummer Boy)
3. - PRIN - -- CE OF- P - E - ACE (Prince of Peace)
4. TH - - REE - WIS - E - - MEN - (Three Wise Men)

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  §