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Almanac: Week: 51 \ Day: 350
December
Averages: 44°\17°
86004 Today: H 45°\L 27°
Ave. humidity: 65% Average Sky Cover: 75%
Wind ave: 4mph\Gusts: 13mph
Ave. High: 43° Record
High: 63° (1958)
Ave. Low: 16° Record
Low: -18° (1971)
Holiday Observances
Today:
Las Posadas (Mexico 12/16-24) represents
the nine months of pregnancy, specifically the pregnancy of Mary carrying Jesus
Independence Day (Kazakhstan-1991- from
Soviet Union)
Reconciliation Day (South Africa-1994-ending
of apartheid)
Victory Day (Bangladesh-1971-over Pakistani
army)
¤ ¤
Barbie
and Barney Backlash Day-the day to tell
kids that these are not real
National Chocolate Covered
Anything Day
National Lemon Cupcake Day
Underdog Day
Zionism
Day
Observances This
Week:
10-17
Human
Rights Week
14-20
Gluten-free
Baking Week
14-28
Halcyon
Days
15-31
Christmas Bird Count Week
16-24
Posadas
• • • • • • •
Quote of
the Day
Historical
Highlights for Today
1631 - Mount Vesuvious, Italy erupts, destroys 6
villages & kills 4,000
1707 - Last recorded eruption of Mount Fuji in
Japan
1773 - Boston tea party incident - Sons of Liberty
protesters throw tea shipments into Boston harbor in protest against British
imposed Tea Act
1811 - Earthquake hits New Madrid, Missouri,
causing widespread damage-many tribes will tell tales of this event for
generations
1835 - Fire consumes over 600 buildings in NYC
1897 - 1st submarine with an internal combustion
engine demonstrated
1903 - Majestic Theater, NYC, becomes 1st in US to
employ women ushers
1905 - "Variety" covering all phases of
show business, 1st published
1908 - 1st credit union in US forms (Manchester NH)
1970 - 1st
successful landing on Venus (USSR)
• • • • • • •
♫
Birthdays Today: ♫
How many can you identify? Answers below in Birthday’s Today
My
Rambling Thoughts
Yesterday was nice. Some friends stopped by to watched the Broncos
win. They brought food so all was good.
Our big snow never materialized, but we have been told to expect
another storm Tuesday through Thursday. We’ll see, but it has become very
overcast this afternoon.
I headed to the Marketplace today and found some great Christmas
presents that I need to get. Also, as usual, found some things for me. I talked
to one of our local nurseries about keeping squirrels away from my bird feeder.
Strangely, they suggested moth balls tied in nylon stockings to be hung around
the area. I’ll try it but can’t believe it will work. An internet post
suggested using predator urine in the area. Hmmm. The squirrels are cute to
watch, but are eating all the bird seed that is for the birds. I’ll watch them
from my front window when they stop eating the bird seed.
• • • • • • •
Brain
Teasers
(answers at the end of post)
What
is this saying?
IF SOLTION THEN PROBULEM.
Found on
You Tube with some relevance to today
OK Then…
• • • • • • •
Paraphernalia
4 the Brain:
December
Holiday Facts
*NEW** Christmas Carol videos in Native Languages
Many Natives have very strong
Christian beliefs, so it is not surprising they have translated Christmas Carols
into their own language. Here are two:
*Christmas-Christian
¤ Santa Claus is based on a real person, St. Nikolas of Myra (also
known as Nikolaos the Wonderworker, Bishop Saint Nicholas of Smyrna, and
Nikolaos of Bari), who lived during the fourth century. Born in Patara (in
modern-day Turkey), he is the world’s most popular non-Biblical saint, and
artists have portrayed him more often than any other saint except Mary. He is
the patron saint of banking, pawn broking, pirating, butchery, sailing,
thievery, orphans, royalty, and New York City.
¤ Early illustrations of St. Nicholas depict him as stern,
commanding, and holding a birch rod. He was more a symbol of discipline and
punishment than the jolly, overweight elf children know today.
*Hanukkah-Jewish
¤ The Hanukkah candles are added onto the special candelabrum from
right to left, but are lit only from left to right.
¤ 'Hanerot Hallalu', an ancient Hanukkah song is recited or sang
while lighting the candles.
*Kwanza-African-American
This holiday has many symbols. There is a candleholder that holds
seven candles. The center candle is black, to symbolize the face of the African
people. On the left of the black candle are three red candles, and on the right
are three green ones. The red symbolizes the blood of the African people and
the green is for the land and the hope of new life.
Flagstaff,
AZ History…
FROM 1889
Mr. Jones of California is here again after beef for the San
Francisco market. He's made arrangements for two trains of 21 cars each to
carry his purchases to California.
Flagstaff’s
Iconic 50…
The Art
Barn
The Art Barn flanks the Coconino Center for the Arts’ eastern
wall. The two-story shelter lends testament to Flagstaff’s rich ranching past
and to its more recent creative talents.
When was it built? No one knows exactly.
Experts have tree-ring-tested the boards to no avail. Few clues
remain except the barn’s round-head nails, which were first used in 1890, and
certain photographs show a large structure looming in the distance.
In 1899, Frank Livermore liquidated what was left of the Arizona
Cattle Company. His severance package included 200 acres from Fort Valley Road
up onto McMillan Mesa. A 1900 tax record shows he improved the land and likely
added a barn — making the Art Barn one of the oldest agricultural-use buildings
in the state.
Livermore sold a chunk of the property to Coconino County in 1907.
The accompanying buildings served as Flagstaff’s first hospital until the seed
of Flagstaff Medical Center rooted in 1938.
The weathered barn served varying purposes after that, including a
boarding house and a county works yard.
In 1964, Viola Babbitt envisioned Flagstaff as the home of an arts
collective serving all of northern Arizona. She and a small group of artists
pleaded with the county supervisors for use of the still-sturdy barn.
Volunteers from the jail and college rallied to transform the
space. The county supplied a new roof and local merchants fronted construction
essentials. New windows illuminated the massive room and widened doors allowed
wheelchair access.
The Art Barn was Babbitt’s original Coconino Center for the Arts —
another project she spearheaded in 1977 — until it, again, fell into disrepair.
Today, a fence keeps the curious at bay and light peeks through
the peeling roof while county officials and historic preservationists mull the
barn’s future. Still, the sturdy walls symbolize at least 100 years of
Flagstaff’s cattle ranching and artistic past.
Harper’s
Index…
Estimated number of customers whose data was stolen from Amazon
subsidiary Zappos in 2012: 24,000,000
Rules of
Thumb…
LIFE
LESSONS
When it hurts the
most, you're learning the most.
Unusual
Fact of the Day…
Giving
a "thumbs up" also represents the American Sign Language symbol for
the number "10."
• • • • • • •
Joke-of-the-day
A couple of terrorist were making letter
bombs. After they had finished, one said: “Do you think I put enough explosive
in this envelope?
“I don’t know,” said the other.
“Open it and see.” “But it will explode.”
“Don’t be stupid! It’s not addressed to you!”
Yep, It
Really Happened
CANBERRA, Australia (UPI) - Doctors in Australia said a parasitic
worm removed from a man's foot was likely inside his body for at least four
years. Dr. Jonathan Darby of St. Vincent's Hospital said the man, who moved to
Melbourne from Sudan about four years ago, came into the hospital with a
swollen foot he said had been causing him pain for about a year. Darby said an
X-ray discovered there were two segments of Dracunculiasis medinensis, or
"guinea worm," in his ankle and foot. Doctors writing in the journal
Pathology said the worm, which can grow to more than three feet in length,
likely died inside the man's foot and split into pieces. The doctors said the
man was likely infected before he left Sudan. The guinea worm infects humans
through the water they drink and borrows through the body to exit through the
foot, doctors said. The exit often creates a burning sensation that leads
patients to submerge the affected foot in water, allowing the worm to infect
the water with its larvae. "That whole process can take years. It can sit
inside the human body alive for years or die, degenerate, and then cause
problems in the area like it did for our patient," Darby told Fairfax
Media. The man made a full recovery once the worm was surgically removed,
doctors said.
Somewhat
Useless Information
¤
France was the first country to cultivate mushrooms, in the mid-17th century.
From there, the practice spread to England and made its way to the United
States in the 19th century.
¤ Ancient Egyptians believed mushrooms were the plant of immortality. Pharaohs
decreed them a royal food and forbade commoners to even touch them.
¤ Most edible mushrooms have poisonous look-alikes in the wild. For example,
the dangerous "yellow stainer" closely resembles the popular white
agaricus mushroom.
¤ In the wild, mushroom spores are spread by wind. On mushroom farms, spores
are collected in a laboratory and then used to inoculate grains to create
"spawn," a mushroom farmer's equivalent of seeds.
¤ Mushroom spores are so tiny that 2,500 arranged end-to-end would measure only
an inch in length.
¤ The process of cultivating mushrooms - from preparing the compost in which
they grow to shipping the crop to markets - takes about four months.
• • • • • • •
Today’s
Events through History
1497 - Portuguese
navigator Vasco da Gama sailing along African East Coast names it Natal, first
European to sail so far
1617 - Spanish viceroy Hernando Arias de Saavedra
founds provinces Rio de la Plata (Argentina)/Guaira (Paraguay)
1653 - Parliamentarian General Oliver Cromwell appointed
as Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland
1824 - Great North Holland Canal opens
1949 - Sukarno becomes President of Indonesia,
Mohammed Hatta Premier
• • • • • • •
Birthday’s
Today
Liv
Ullmann, Norwegian actress and director (The Emigrants, Persona)is
76
Lesley
Stahl
, newscaster/correspondent (CBS) is 73
Steven
Bochco, prod (Hill St Blues, LA Law, St Elsewhere, NYPD Blue) is
71
Ben Cross, English
actor (Chariots of Fire, Star Trek) is 67
William
"The Refrigerator" Perry, NFL defensive back (Chicago Bears)
is 52
Benjamin
Bratt, actor (Det Reynaldo Curtis-Law & Order) is 51
Remembered
for being born today
Catherine
of Aragon, Spanish princess/1st wife of Henry VIII, (1485-1536-@50)
Ludwig
van Beethoven, composer (Ode to Joy), (1770-1827-@56)
Jane
Austen
, novelist (Pride and Prejudice), [1775-1817-@41]
George
Santayana, Spain, philosopher/poet/humanist [1863-1952-@88]
Noel
Coward, England, playwright (1942 Acad Award) [1899-1973-@73]
Margaret
Mead, US anthropologist (Coming of Age in Samoa) [1901-1978-@76]
Sir
Arthur C. Clarke, science fiction author (2001) [1917-2008-@90]
Philip
K[indred] Dick, US, sci-fi
author (Blade Runner) [1928-1982-@52]
• • • • • • •
Historical
Obits Today
William
Somerset Maugham, English author (Razor's Edge), 1965, @91
Harland
Sanders, founder Kentucky Fried Chicken, 1980, @90
Ray Price,
American singer, 2013, @87
Wilhelm
Grimm, writer, infection, 1859, @73
Lee Van
Cleef, US actor (Good, Bad & Ugly), heart attack, 1989, @64
Gary
Stewart, American musician and songwriter, suicide, 2003, @59
Dan
Fogelberg, American singer/songwriter, cancer, 2007, @57
Richard
Warwick, actor (Johnny Dangerously, Sebastine, If), AIDS, 1997, @52
• • • • • • •
Brain Teasers Answers
If you are not part of the solution then you are part of the problem
(U is missing from SOLTION=not part of it, and U is added to PROBLEM=part of
it)
• • • • • • •
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 contains mistakes and sadly once 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…§
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