2-3-14

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Flagstaff Almanac:

Week: 06 / Day: 034   

Today: L 6°…H 34°… Ave. humidity: 65%

Wind: ave:   16mph; Gusts:  23mph  

Average Low: 18° Record Low:  -22° (1922)

Average High: 44° Record High:  64° (1953)

Quote of the Day

 

Today’s Historical Highlights

1690 - 1st paper money in America issued (colony of Mass)

1743 - Philadelphia establishes a "pesthouse" to quarantine immigrants

1815 - World's 1st commercial cheese factory established, in Switzerland

1870 - 15th Amendment (Black suffrage) passed

1876 - Albert Spalding with $800 starts sporting goods co

1913 - 16th Amendment, federal income tax, ratified

1943 - 4 chaplains drown after giving up their life jackets to others

1947 - -81°F (-63°C), Snag Yukon (North American record)
1962 - President Kennedy bans all trade with Cuba except for food & drugs

1966 - 1st soft landing on Moon (Soviet Luna 9)

1973 - President Nixon signs Endangered Species Act into law

♫  Today’s Birthdays: ♫   

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

 

My Free Rambling Thoughts   

Much colder than usual last night.  It was only 7° when I got up this morning…a little cold to get the paper in my slippers. Lots of clouds most of the day.

 

Getting ready for the Super Bowl….got my Sunday news shows watched…caught up on some DVR series…read the Sunday paper…great day.

 

With all the money that is spent of defense, during the past decade, it only seems fair that all the dollars earmarked for Afghanistan should now go to the VA to help the thousands of wounded vets that had their lives forever changed during that war. If we got the money to fight these wars, we need to use the money to take care of the men and women who survived those many battles.

Game  Center (answers at the end of post)

Brain Teasers

In this teaser, you are to start with the letter 'U', and then each time add a letter and shuffle it to make a new word. You need to continue this process until you reach the word 'PRODUCE'.
Not including 'U', you must do this in six (6) turns.

U _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ P R O D U C E

Lifestyle  Substance:     

Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

• American Pie - Don McLean

• Big Bopper - Chantilly Lace

• Buddy Holly & The Crickets - That'll Be The Day

• Ritchie Valens- La bamba

Suggested New State Mottos:

• Maine: We're Really Cold, But We Have Cheap Lobster

• Washington: Help! We're Overrun By Nerds And Slackers!

Remembering TV’s great shows:

"The Andy Griffith Show" From the opening shot of Sheriff Andy Taylor and son Opie gone fishin', the sitcom welcomed us to Mayberry, where Aunt Bee, Barney Fife and others became part of our extended TV family.

Phrases Shakespeare invented:

brevity is the soul of wit: Shakespeare's Hamlet

Words Shakespeare invented

CriticalDefinition: Expressing criticism or disapproval
Origin: From the Latin "criticus," which referred specifically to a literary critic.
Quote: "For I am nothing if not critical" – Othello

OK Then…

 

Harper’s Index 

• Percentage of public school teachers who spent their own money on school supplies during the last academic year: 99.5

• Average amount they spent: $485

Unusual Fact of the Day

Amerigo Vespucci, for whom many historians believe America was named, was an Italian pickle merchant.

Joke-of-the-day

A guy called a budget airline to book a flight. The operator asked: “How many people area traveling?

“How should I know?” said the man. “It’s your plane!”  

Rules of Thumb:   

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess

EVALUATING KID'S SPEECH

A child whose speech and intelligence are developing normally will say as many words per utterance (plus or minus one) as his or her age in years - e.g. a child of about 1 should be starting to make one-word utterances, a child nearing two should be starting to put two words together, etc.    

Yeah, It Really Happened

Give Courtney Allen Curtis a hand. The Democratic lawmaker has introduced a bill to the Missouri House of Representatives that would make the high five the state's official greeting.

The bill, HB 1624 reads: “The 'high five' is selected for and shall be known as the official state greeting in the state of Missouri,” according to TV station KTVI.

“The high five is friendly, fun, and can lift spirits; and with tensions running high in the Capitol building, the high five might be just what Missouri needs," he told the South County Mail. "An official state greeting could help to break up the monotony of the day-to-day work and promote a friendlier environment between both sides of the aisle."

The bill, which was introduced on Jan. 28, is getting a high five from some Missourians. Yvette Hannigan told Fox's Kansas City affiliate that "it sounds kind of fun."

Other residents like Michael Sherrill give it a thumbs down.

“Unless they’re going to be putting out hand things to wipe the hands off and things like that with all the viruses and things going around, I’m not sure that would be a good idea,” he told the station.

Curtis hopes to handily defeat the nay-sayers.

Somewhat Useless Information   

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

• Experts agree that by leaving the rainforests intact and harvesting it's many nuts, fruits, oil-producing plants, and medicinal plants, the rainforest has more economic value than if they were cut down to make grazing land for cattle or for timber.

• The latest statistics show that rainforest land converted to cattle operations yields the land owner $60 per acre and if timber is harvested, the land is worth $400 per acre. However, if these renewable and sustainable resources are harvested, the land will yield the land owner $2,400 per acre.

• If managed properly, the rainforest can provide the world's need for these natural resources on a perpetual basis.

• Promoting the use of these sustainable and renewable sources could stop the destruction of the  rainforests. By creating a new source of income harvesting the medicinal plants, fruits nuts, oil and other sustainable resources, the rainforests is be more valuable alive than cut and burned.

• Sufficient demand of sustainable and ecologically harvested rainforest products is necessary for  preservation efforts to succeed. Purchasing sustainable rainforest products can effect positive change by creating a market for these products while supporting the native people's economy and provides the

• economic solution and alternative to cutting the forest just for the value of its timber.

Calendar Information        

Happening This Week:

☼1-7☼

African Heritage & Health Week

Solo Diners Eat Out Weekend
Women's Heart Week

☼2-8☼
Boy Scout Anniversary Week
Children's Authors & Illustrators Week
Dump Your Significant Jerk Week
International Coaching Week
Just Say No to PowerPoint Week
Publicity for Profit Week

☼3-7☼
International Networking Week
International Friendship Week 
National School Counseling Week 

Today Is                                                                      

·        Four Chaplains Memorial Day

·        The Day The Music Died

++++++

·        Bean Throwing Festival (Setsubun - Japan)

·        Heroes' Day (Mozambique)

Today’s Events through History  

1809 - Territory of Illinois organizes (including present-day Wisconsin)

1908 - Supreme Court rules a union boycott violates Sherman Antitrust Act

1966 - 1st operational weather satellite, ESSA-1 launched US

1972 - 11th Winter Olympic games opens in Sapporo, Japan (1st in Asia)

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

Fran Tarkenton, NFL QB (NY Giants, Minnesota Vikings) is 74

Blythe Danner, actress (Butterflies are Free) is 71

Morgan Fairchild, [Patsy McClenny], actress (Falcon Crest) is 64

Nathan Lane, actor (One of the Boys, Frankie & Johnnie) is 58

Remembered for being born today

Horace Greeley, editor ("Go west, young man")

Gertrude Stein, Penn, author (Autobiography of Alice B Toklas)

Norman Rockwell, artist/illustrator (Sat Evening Post covers)

Charles "Pretty Boy" Floyd, gangster and FBI Most Wanted criminal

Joey Bishop, [Gottlieb], Bronx, talk show host (Joey Bishop Show)

Victor Buono, SD California, actor (Man from Atlantis, Untouchables)

Emile Griffith, US Virgin Islands professional boxer, (d. 2013)

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           

Ben Gazzara, American actor,  pancreatic cancer, 2012 @81

Frank Oppenheimer, American physicist, 1985, @72

Nancy Kulp, actress (Jane Hathaway-Beverly Hillbillies), cancer, 1991, @69

Woodrow Wilson, 28th US president, stroke, 1924 @67

John Cassavetes, actor/director (Husbands, Dirty Dozen), cirrhosis, 1989 @59

Belle Starr, US female gangster, murdered, 1889 @40

Big Bopper, rocker, dies in plane crash, 1959 @28
Buddy Holly, rock and roll musician dies in a plane crash, 1959, @ 22

Richie Valens, rock vocalist (Donna), killed in plane crash, 1959 @17

Brain Teasers

U UP CUP COUP COUPE RECOUP PRODUCE

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  §