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Flagstaff Almanac:

Week: 01 / Day: 003   

Today: L 18°…H 52°… Ave. humidity: 48%

Wind: ave:   4mph; Gusts:  9mph  

Average Low: 16° Record Low:  -19° (1937)

Average High: 42° Record High:  62° (1918)

Quote of the Day

 

Today’s Historical Highlights

1431 - Joan of Arc handed over to the bishop

1496 - Leonardo da Vinci unsuccessfully tests a flying machine.

1521 - Martin Luther excommunicated

1825 - Scottish factory owner Robert Owen buys 30,000 acres in Indiana as site 

             for New Harmony utopian community

1852 - 1st Chinese arrive in Hawaii

1870 - Construction begins on Brooklyn Bridge in New York; completed May 24, 1883

1899 – 1st known use of the word automobile, was seen in an editorial in 

             The New York Times.

1924 - British egyptologist Howard Carter finds sarcophagus of Tutankhamun

1938 - March of Dimes established to fight polio

1952 - "Dragnet" with Jack Webb premieres on NBC TV

1956 - Fire damages the top part of the Eiffel Tower.

1961 - US breaks diplomatic relations with Cuba

1977 - Apple Computers incorporate

1987 - Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inducts 1st female artist Aretha Franklin

1988 - Margaret Thatcher becomes longest-serving British PM this century

♫  Today’s Birthdays: ♫   

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

My Free Rambling Thoughts   

Our retirement group got together for a great lunch. Cheryl had a good time in CA, even though her non-English speaking mother-in-law put a lot of pressure on everyone, it was a good time. Kids were all happy with their presents. Mary did not have that great a time. She and her hubby went to Phx for a 10 day holiday in the new house, only to find that her brother-in-law and wife had invited themselves into their home for most of the holiday. It seems Mary’s hubby gave a key to his brother and said ‘anytime’. They had recently retired to Payson but have all their relatives in Phoenix. Since it is Mary’s house, she was less than happy about her husband’s open ended invitation. That stress was intensified when Mary’s brother had to have emergency surgery for a serious stomach problem and will now be on a liquid diet for at least 6 months. Not the best Christmas either of them. Sadly, Mary’s problems do not have an easy solution and are really stressing her out.

 

Sure am glad I live in the mountains of AZ, as being ‘back east’ sure doesn’t look like a great place to be, even if you like snow. Not a horrific blizzard, but certainly putting a cramp on many activities. Guess it’s good for the snow plow industry. While it is really nice here in Flagstaff, my brother is in Merida with very nice weather…

Game  Center (answers at the end of post)

Brain Teasers

I am a letter. I am in talk, and in stop, I am in tickle, and in tackle, I am in bullet, and kite, I am in poster, and in tear, I am in torn, and in fear, I am in tick, and in stock, I am in tulip, but I'm also in by. What am I?

Lifestyle  Substance:     

Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

• Dragnet 1951

• Funny lions from Born Free reunited with Bill Travers

• Top 10 Edgar Cayce Predictions

• Victor Borge: Phonetic punctuation

• What's My Line? Ray Milland

Odd Lawsuits…

Couldn't Handle the Pain

Zeynep Inanli sued Starbucks for millions of dollars because her tea was way too hot. She claims it gave her second-degree burns and great physical pain.

OK Then…

Harper’s Index 

• Amount spent annually in the United States on private security forces: $21,700,000,000

• On public police forces: $13,800,000,000

Unusual Fact of the Day

King Louis XIV was so afraid of weapons that he ruled all pointed knives at dinner tables illegal.

Joke-of-the-day

A farm boy accidentally overturned his wagonload of corn. The farmer who lived nearby heard the noise and yelled over to the boy, "Hey Willis forget your troubles. Come in and visit with us. I'll help you get the wagon up later."

"That's mighty nice of you," Willis answered, "but I don't think Pa would like me to." 

"Aw come on boy," the farmer insisted.

"Well okay," the boy finally agreed, and added, "but Pa won't like it."

After a hearty dinner, Willis thanked his host. "I feel a lot better now, but I know Pa is going to be real upset."

"Don't be foolish!" the neighbor said with a smile. "By the way, where is he?" 

"Under the wagon."

Rules of Thumb:   

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess

WHEN TO END AN AWKWARD CHANCE ENCOUNTER

If you meet someone in a public place and stop to chat, note any pauses. If any pause is greater in seconds than the number of years since you last spoke, make a polite exit.    

Yeah, It Really Happened

A woman walking along Peck Lake Beach on Jupiter Island Wednesday discovered a human foot in a shoe -- the rest of the body is nowhere to be found.

The unnamed woman said she spotted the shoed foot under some sea grass at about noon, according to NBC Miami. Deputies searched for more remains with K-9s and an aircraft, but didn't find any.

The foot was taken to a crime lab, where detectives will try to determine its owner.

"We don't know a lot right now on how long it has been in the water but our investigators do not believe it was for an extended period of time," Martin County Sheriff William Snyder told WPTV.

There aren't any active missing person cases in the county, according to The Palm Beach Post. Snyder said he's reaching out to other jurisdictions for missing person information, and that he expects to have a DNA match sometime today.

Somewhat Useless Information   

• Bamboo plants can grow up to 36 inches in a day.

• A typical four-square-mile patch of rainforest contains as many as 1,500 flowering plants, 750 species of trees, 400 species of birds and 150 species of butterflies.

• Rainforests provide many important products for people: timber, coffee, cocoa and many medicinal products, including those used in the treatment of cancer.

• Seventy percent of the plants identified by the U.S. National Cancer Institute as useful in the treatment of cancer are found only in rainforests.

• More than 2,000 tropical forest plants have been identified by scientists as having anti-cancer properties. Less than one percent of the tropical rainforest species have been analyzed for their medicinal value.

Calendar Information        

Happening This Week:

1-7

New Year's Resolutions Week
Celebration of Life Week
Diet Resolution Week
Silent Record Week
Someday We'll Laugh About This Week

Today Is                                                                       

·        Drinking Straw Day

·        J.R.R. Tolkien Day

·        "Remember You Die" Day

·        National Chocolate Covered Cherry Day

·        Congress Assembles Day

^^^^^^

·        Admission Day (Alaska-1959-49^th state)

·        Passport Presentation (Russia-ceremony for 16-year-olds, who are recognized as citizens of the country)

·        St. Genevieve Feast Day (France)

Today’s Events through History  

1746 - Bonnie Prince Charlie’s army leaves Glasgow

1541 - de Soto visits the main CHICKASAW town. He wants to visit Caluca, and 

            he gets guides and interpreters from the CHICKASAW

1953 - Frances Bolton and her son, Oliver from Ohio, become the first mother 

             and son to serve simultaneously in the U.S. Congress.

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

Robert Loggia, actor (Officer & a Gentleman, THE Cat) is 84

Bobby Hull, NHL forward (Chicago Blackhawk 1957-72) is 75

Stephen Stills, songwriter/guitarist (Cosby Stills & Nash) is 69

John Paul Jones [John Baldwin], rock bassist (Led Zeppelin - Stairway to Heaven) is 68

Victoria Principal, Fukuoka Japan, actress (Earthquake, Pamela-Dallas) is 64

Mel Gibson, actor (Mad Max, Mrs Soffel, Lethal Weapon) is 58

Cheryl Miller, basketball player (Olympic-gold-1984) is 50

Eli Manning, Giant’s QB is 33

Remembered for being born today

106 BC - Cicero, Roman statesman and philosopher (d. 43 BC)

1793 - Lucretia Coffin Mott, US, teacher/minister/abolitionist/feminist

1840 - Father Joseph Damien de Veuster, Belgium, helped lepers in Hawaii

1879 - Grace Anna Goodhue Coolidge, US 1st Lady  

1892 - John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, South Africa, philologist/writer (Lord of Rings)

1894 - ZaSu Pitts, American actress (d. 1963)

1905 - Ray Milland, Wales, actor (Lost Weekend-Acad Award 1945)

1909 - Victor Borge, [Borge Rosenbaum], Copenhagen Denmark, pianist/comedian

1916 - Betty Furness, NYC, actress/journalist/consumer activist (Studio 1)

1922 - Bill Travers, Newcastle-on-Tyne England, actor (Born Free, Gorgo)

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           

Conrad Hilton, US founder (Hilton Hotels) in 1979 @91

Pat Hingle, character actor in 2009 @84

Mathieu Molé, French statesman in 1656 @ 72

Josiah Wedgwood, British, ceramic craftsman/woodworker in 1795 @64

Edgar Cayce, American psychic of stroke in 1945 @67

Jack Ruby, assassin of Lee Harvey Oswald of blood clot in 1967 @55

William Joyce, (Lord Haw Haw), hanged – treason in 1946 @39

George Bizet, composer (Carmen) of heart attack in 1875 @37

Brain Teasers

I am a letter, I didn't ask which one.

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  §