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Almanac: Week: 51 \ Day: 352
December
Averages: 44°\17°
86004 Today: H 45°\L 30°
Ave. humidity: 78% Average Sky Cover: 70%
Wind ave: 5mph\Gusts: 16mph
Ave. High: 43° Record
High: 65° (1901)
Ave. Low: 16° Record
Low: -14° (1908)
Holiday Observances
Today:
Republic Day (Niger-1958)
¤ ¤
Answer the
Telephone Like Buddy The Elf Day
Arabic
Language Day
Bake Cookies Day
Free
Shipping Day
International
Migrants Day
National
Re-gifting Day
National Roast Suckling
Pig Day
Observances This
Week:
14-20
Gluten-free
Baking Week
14-28
Halcyon
Days
15-31
Christmas Bird Count Week
16-24
Posadas
¤
17-24
Chanukah
Saturnalia
• • • • • • •
Quote of
the Day
Historical
Highlights for Today
218 BC - Hannibal's Carthaginian forces defeat those
of the Roman Republic
1271 - Kublai Khan renames his empire
"Yuan" (元 yuán), officially marking the start of
the Yuan Dynasty of China
1719 - Thomas Fleet publishes "Mother Goose's
Melodies For Children"
1777 - 1st national Thanksgiving Day, commemorating
Burgoyne's surrender
• • • • • • •
♫
Birthdays Today: ♫
How many can you identify? Answers below in Birthday’s Today
My
Rambling Thoughts
The plan today was to stay at home, watch the 3-4” of snow fall,
organize my Christmas gifts, and relax. Then I turned on the TV to hear Pres.
Obama’s announcement regarding our new relations with Cuba. About 10 minutes
later I started getting text messages from friends regarding the announcement. I
posted some of my Cuba pictures on Facebook and got several responses. All in
all, many of my friends figured that our trip to Cuba had some impact on the
change in policy. I did send a letter to Obama, McCain, Flake, and Kirkpatrick
upon my return. Basically stating that more Americans need to visit since the
vast majority of America have no idea what Cuba is like. Most of us are stuck
with the images of Ricky Ricardo and Lucy and ‘Babaloo’. I got the typical
reply from all the officials, thanking me for my comments and stating that they
would be filed.
Now, for the first time since I was in 6th grade, Cuba
may become a trading partner. It is time, and actually it has been time for a
couple of decades.
After I watched CNN, I turned to Fox to see what they were saying.
No surprise, they were outraged. Lots of politicians did line up behind the
Commander in Chief, but not on Fox with one major exception…AZ Senator Flake
was interviewed and since he was on the plane that brought the citizens back, he
was very pro-change in policy. His time on Fox was limited to his comment then
they went to someone else. The talking heads even made some snarky comments
about his comment. Anyway, overall it seems that the change is coming. So happy
that I am one of the many Americans who traveled to Cuba, wrote to the
government officials, and saw a change.
We didn’t get the promised snow, I did get the organizing of
presents done and I did relax a little.
• • • • • • •
Brain
Teasers
(answers at the end of post)
This
morning I asked my math class to find the areas of two right-angled triangles.
Lottie-Lu's hand shot up immediately, so I asked her the first one.
"24" she announced.
She was right (for a change!) and I made the mistake of asking her how she did
it.
"Easy. Just add all the sides together."
I was about to correct her and say it was just a coincidence, when I noticed that
her method worked on my second triangle as well!
Lottie-Lu must have caught my frustrated thoughts. "Well, it works,
doesn't it?" she chirped.
What were the side lengths of the two triangles I had drawn on the board this
morning? They were all whole numbers.
Found on
You Tube with some relevance to today
OK Then…
• • • • • • •
Paraphernalia
4 the Brain:
December
Holiday Facts
* Christmas Carol videos in Native Languages
*Christmas-Christian
¤ Christmas stockings allegedly evolved from three sisters who
were too poor to afford a marriage dowry and were, therefore, doomed to a life
of prostitution. They were saved, however, when the wealthy Bishop Saint
Nicholas of Smyrna (the precursor to Santa Claus) crept down their chimney and
generously filled their stockings with gold coins.
¤ There are two competing claims as to which president was the
first to place a Christmas tree in the White House. Some scholars say President
Franklin Pierce did in 1856; others say President Benjamin Harrison brought in
the first tree in 1889. President Coolidge started the White House lighting
ceremony in 1923.
*Hanukkah-Jewish
Traditional Hanukkah food is cooked during the festival. Oil is
the key ingredient of the foods, which is a sign of tribute to the miracle of
purified oil.
*Kwanza-African-American
The Celebration
Each day the family gathers to discuss the principle of the day.
They can gather in their home, or several families may gather together in one
home, or a large meeting hall. Traditionally the youngest person
lights the candle. On the first day the black candle is lit, and the first
principle is discussed (umoja). Everyone can talk about what it means to them,
how they try to practice it, and how other people practice it and how it helps
the entire community. Then there can be a discussion on how they can continue
to practice it throughout the year, and activities based on the principle of
the day. After the discussion is complete, the candle is put out. On the next
day the black candle is lit again, and then a candle for the next principle,
Kujichagulia. If you look back at the list of principles, you will see this one
is written n red, so a red candle is lit. The next day the black candle, the
red one and a green one are lit, and so on, until on the seventh day all seven
candles are lit.
Flagstaff,
AZ History…
FROM 1889
There have been a great many complaints of late of men getting
drunk and openly going about on the main street using obscene language not fit
to apply to a dog. It has become so bad that no lady dare walk on Railroad
Avenue for fear of being insulted or hearing dirty or indecent epithets. There
is a good law on this subject. It should be rigidly enforced.
Flagstaff’s
Iconic 50…
Old
Two-Spot historic locomotive
Though its wheels remain motionless, the rust never forms on Two
Spot.
Two Spot is a Baldwin 2-8-0 locomotive that sits on a section of
display track in downtown Flagstaff along Old Route 66 just east of the train
depot. Born in 1911 as No. 25 in Pennsylvania, the steam locomotive got its
nickname after the water bags that hung below its engineer windows steadily
wore off paint, leaving a spot where the 5 was next to the 2.
The Arizona Lumber and Timber Company bought the locomotive in
1917, and it remained in Flagstaff its entire working life. It now stands as a
memory of the timber workers and Flagstaff’s logging days. After having eight
different owners, the engine was retired in 1966, resting on the property of
Stone Forest Industry, the last lumber company to operate in Flagstaff. The
company closed its doors in 1993, and the company began auctioning its
equipment and materials.
In 1999, thanks to Flagstaff train enthusiast and historian and
essayist Malcolm Mackey, Two Spot was placed downtown to remain intact for all
travelers coming through town to view. But acquiring Two Spot was an arduous
task, and Two Spot almost found itself sitting in Oregon, which didn’t put up
the money in time. Mackey, who wrote a book detailing the efforts to keep the
train in town, said he was one of a group who put up $10,000 to buy the engine
for about $45,000.
Harper’s
Index…
Amount by which spending on mobile ads is projected to exceed that
on newspaper ads this year: $1,000,000,000
Rules of
Thumb…
BUYING
BATTERIES
In most cases, a
lithium battery will last as long as four alkaline batteries, and an alkaline
battery will last as long as ten carbon-zinc batteries.
Unusual
Fact of the Day…
The
state with the longest official name is also the smallest. The winner is the
"State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations."
• • • • • • •
Joke-of-the-day
Just think, in a few million years Barney will
be motor oil
Yep, It
Really Happened
WASHINGTON
(UPI)
Whether it be at the Christmas dinner table or on television, moms
do not want their kids bickering. Pundits Dallas Woodhouse, a Republican, and
his brother Brad Woodhouse, a Democrat, learned their lesson when their mother
called into C-SPAN to chastise them for bickering. The two were discussing
bipartisanship on Washington Journal with host Steve Scully when a call came in
from "Joy" from North Carolina. The brothers greeted their fellow
southerner until she started to speak, to which Dallas said, "Oh God, it's
Mom." "You're right, I'm from down south," she said. "And
I'm your MOTHER." "I disagree that many families are like ours,"
she continued. "I don't know many families that are fighting at
Thanksgiving. I was very glad that this Thanksgiving was a year you were
supposed to go to your in-laws. I'm hoping you'll have some of this out of your
system when you come here for Christmas. I would really like a peaceful
Christmas." While the pundits' mother was on the phone, Scully asked her
what it was like raising her boys. "It hasn't been easy," she
replied, adding that she loved them both. Mrs. Woodhouse is a registered
Democrat, but admitted she has split her ticket.
Somewhat
Useless Information
¤
If a person who was born 8 lbs. and 20 in. at birth continued growing at the
same rate as he does the first year, by the time he reached 20, he would be 25
ft. tall and weigh nearly 315 lbs.
¤
The grasp of a newborn baby is so strong that its whole body can hang in
midair, with its bent fingers supporting its weight.
• • • • • • •
Today’s
Events through History
1956 - "To Tell the Truth" debuts on
CBS-TV
1971 - 3 members of the Irish Republican Army die
when bomb they were transporting explodes prematurely in County Derry
1976 - "Wonder Woman" debuts on ABC
• • • • • • •
Birthday’s
Today
Roger
Smith, actor (77 Sunset Strip) is 82
Roger E.
Mosley, actor (TC-Magnum PI) is 76
Keith
Richards, rock guitarist (Rolling Stones-Brown Sugar) is 71
Steven
Spielberg, director (ET, Close Encounters, Jaws) is 68
Ray
Liotta, actor (Goodfellas) is 60
Brad Pitt, actor
(12 Monkeys) is 51
Kiefer
Sutherland, actor (Young Guns) is 48
Katie
Holmes, actress (Dawson's Creek, Batman Begins) is 36
Christina
Aguilera, singer (Genie in a Bottle) is 34
Remembered
for being born today
Charles
Wesley, co-founder (Methodist movement) [1707-1788@80]
J. J.
Thomson, physicist discovered electron (Nobel 1906) [1856-1940@83]
Franz
Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria, assassination led to WWI
[1863-1914@50]
Saki, [Hector
Hugo Munro], Burma, author [1870-1916@45]
Joseph
Stalin [Josef], Premier of the Soviet Union [1878-1953@74)
Ty Cobb, baseball
player, (Det Tigers) [1886-1961@74]
Willy
Brandt, [Herbert Frahm], German chancellor (Nobel 1971) [1913-1992@78]
Betty
Grable, great legs/actress (Gay Divorcee) [1916-1973@56]
Ossie
Davis, actor/playwright (Hot Stuff, Man Called Adam) [1917-2005@87]
• • • • • • •
Historical
Obits Today
John T "Legs"
Diamond, US gangster, gang murdered, 1931, @35
Mark
Goodson, TV game show producer (Goodson-Toddman), cancer, 1992, @77
Mother
Clare Hale, cared for NYC AIDS babies (Hale House), 1992, @87
Chris
Farley, comedian (SNL, Tommy Boy), OD, 1997, @33
Jack
Linkletter, television host, son of Art Linkletter, lymphoma, 2007, @70
Bill
Strauss, founder of the Capitol Steps, 2007, @60
Mark Felt, the
infamous Deep Throat, 2008, @95
• • • • • • •
Brain Teasers Answers
1. 6-8-10 (Area = 6x8/2 = 24)
2. 5-12-13 (Area = 5x12/2 = 30)
• • • • • • •
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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