3-12-14

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Flagstaff Almanac: Day: 071   / Week: 11  

Today: L 32°…H 56°… Ave. humidity: 46%

     Wind: ave:   14mph; Gusts:  24mph  

     Average Low: 22° Record Low:  -1° (1917)

    Average High: 49° Record High:  72° (1900)

Quote of the Day

 

Today’s Historical Highlights

1365 - University of Vienna founded

1609 - Bermuda becomes an English colony

1622 - Ignatius of Loyola declared a saint

1755 - 1st steam engine in America installed, to pump water from a mine

1850 - 1st US $20 gold piece issued

1867 - Last French troops leave Mexico

1884 - Mississippi establishes 1st US state college for women

1912 - Girl Guides (Girl Scouts) forms in Savannah

1930 - Mohandas Gandhi begins 200m (300km) march protesting British salt tax

1933 - FDR conducts his 1st "fireside chat"

1945 - NY is 1st to prohibit discrimination by race & creed in employment

1947 - Pres Harry Truman introduces Truman-doctrine to fight communism

1984 - British ice dancing team, Torvill & Dean, become 1st to receive 9 perfect 6.0s

1994 - Church of England ordains 1st 33 women priests

2003 - Elizabeth Smart, was found after having been missing for 9 months.

2011 - A reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant melts and explodes

♫  Today’s Birthdays: ♫   

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

 

My Free Rambling Thoughts   

A decent day here in Flag.

 

It is good to live in a small town. I got a new jury summons today, for the 27^th. I will be in Cuba so I called the jury number and told them. I told the lady I would be out of town that day and she asked if I would be available in April. I said yes after the second, and she said no problem, I’ll send you a new letter for Apr 10. How cool is that? A real human, helping another real human without a whole bunch of questions other than my name. Over the past few weeks I have always had to answer a series of questions to get help. Very happy.

 

When I went to Chicago for Christmas, I left a present for my sister-in-law here in Flag. I had purchased it in Canada. I farted around and didn’t send it until late February…a Frazier sibling thing. My brother had given me the wrong Loft number and the USPS held it at the PO nearby them. He left a note for the postman to redeliver the package. Today, the package came back to me, unopened and unclaimed.  I emailed him in Mexico to let him know and he just shook his head…so Laura will get an extra present next year.

 

One thing that I remember about trip to Malaysia is that we arrived at night and our tour guide picked us up at the airport As we were traveling to the hotel she was pointing out how well lit the city of Kuala Lumpur was. She said that the country was working very hard to be recognized as a ‘developed country’ rather than a ‘developing country.’ We all kinda rolled our eyes as here in the US we are turning off lots of lights to save valuable resources, yet there all the buildings were fully lit on the inside even though no one was there. Now that one of their planes is missing I am seeing that they are far from a ‘developed country’. They now admit they knew the plane had suddenly changed direction for about an hour and no jets were scrambled, no one at the airport in Malaysia did anything to figure out why the plane changed direction, nor did they make that knowledge available to the searchers until today. I had noticed that in our time in Kuala Lumpur that our tour guide showed the beauty of the city and took us to the Government center…about 30 minutes outside the city proper…that had beautiful new buildings, great streets, great landscaping and nice new housing. No one lived in the housing because there was no infrastructure planned or built…stores, gas stations, entertainment, etc. Everyone commuted on public transportation to and from their jobs daily. The whole time she was showing us the cosmetic appeal. We saw no poor area, no slums seemed to exist, yet there had to be poor people somewhere. Now it appears that the government is a lot of talk without a lot of action. My cosmetic memory of the capital seems to be true. So sad.

Game  Center (answers at the end of post)

Brain Teasers

Fill in the answers to the clues by using all the syllables. The number to be used is in parentheses.

AD AR ECH ISH IST MON O SUG TLE TUR TYP

1. Sweetener (2) 2. Keyboard user (2) 3. Sound reflection (2) 4. Tortoise's kin (2) 5. Chide (3)

Lifestyle  Substance:     

Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

• Jack Kerouac Reads from "On The Road"

• Cabaret, Liza Minnelli

• Al Jarreau - Mornin'

• Classic Clips: Edward Albee (1980)

• Torvill & Dean - 1984 Olympics - Bolero

• Fireside Chat 1 (9 min)

Remembering TV’s great shows

"The Big Bang Theory"--It doesn't take a rocket scientist to explain the formula for this sitcom's explosive success: It's all about the ensemble's chemistry.

Bizarre Facts about World’s Dictators

Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier, Self-Made Doctor Deity

There are some dictators who make statements and institute social traditions that quickly identify them as members of an entirely new rank of delusionals or the most daring spin artists in history. Known for many atrocities and repressive regime practices, the medical man turned brutal Haitian dictator Francois Duvalier took the step of encouraging the recital of the Lord’s Prayer. What made this measure especially odd and concerning was the fact that Duvalier was now the subject of the prayer.The quasi-religious teachings surrounding Duvalier grew to include claims that his predecessors—Dessalines, Toussaint, Christophe, Petion, and Estime—were actually deceased beings now manifested in the person of Duvalier all at same time! Finally, Duvaliar was identified as a “professor of energy and electrifier of souls” in dramatic propaganda schemes that portrayed the dictator as a god-cult with scientific powers.

Misconceptions of Medieval Figures

El Cid Fought For Muslims - Spanish hero

Rodrigo Diaz is one of Spain’s most recognizable figures. In the eighth century, a group of Muslims from North Africa, called the Moors, had invaded and conquered Spain. Diaz—known as “El Cid” to the Moors and “El Campeador” to the Christians—is regarded as a pivotal figure in the Christian effort to drive the Moors out in the late 11th century. For this reason, Diaz was and has been championed as a hero of Christian Spain, such as in the 1961 film El Cid starring Charlton Heston. In reality, Diaz was a hero for hire. The Moors’ money was just as good as the Christians’, so he fought for both sides equally. When his original employer, King Sancho II, was assassinated, Diaz continued his service to Christian Spain under Alfonso VI. When Diaz made an unauthorized raid into Toledo, he was exiled from Alfonso’s kingdom. In exile, Diaz abandoned Christendom and happily agreed to fight for the Moors, battling alongside Muslim commanders in numerous strategically important battles.In fact, Diaz had first made contact with the Moors in 1065, the same year Sancho ascended to the throne. Fighting for the Muslim dynasty of Saragossa, Diaz defeated anyone who threatened King al-Mu’tamin, Christians and Moors alike. Alfonso swallowed his pride to ask for Diaz’s help against the Moors in 1087, but it wasn’t long before he was back in Saragossa. In 1094, Diaz conquered Valencia on his own and established a fiefdom with combined Muslim and Christian inhabitants. Though Valencia was nominally tied to Alfonso’s Christian Spain, it was independent for all intents and purposes. Despite his prominence as a Christian general, the events of Diaz’s life suggest that he was motivated more by money than religion in war.

OK Then…

 

Harper’s Index 

• Kilowatt-hours of energy used each year by the average Ethiopian citizen: 52

• By the average US refrigerator in a year: 454

Unusual Fact of the Day

Crayola means "oily chalk." The name is derived from the French words craie, or "chalk," and ola, an abbreviation for "oleaginous," or "oily."

Joke-of-the-day

A lawyer died and arrived at the pearly gates. To his dismay, there were thousands of people ahead of him in line to see St. Peter. To his surprise, St. Peter left his desk at the gate and came down the long line to where the lawyer was, and greeted him warmly. Then St. Peter and one of his assistants took the lawyer by the hands and guided him up to the front of the line, and into a comfortable chair by his desk.

The lawyer said, "I don't mind all this attention, but what makes me so special?"

St. Peter replied, "Well, I've added up all the hours for which you billed your clients, and by my calculation you must be about 193 years old!"  

Rules of Thumb:   

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess

DOING SOMETHING FOR MONEYIf someone says, "It's not the money, it's the principle," it's the money.    

Yeah, It Really Happened

Life is cheap in Wisconsin. As cheap as a thousand bucks and a decent lay. At least that is what one woman was willing to offer for the death of her fiance.

Thirty-three-year-old Jessica Strom of Merrill appeared in court charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree intentional homicide in a bizarre sting operation.

According to court records, Strom allegedly tried to arrange the murder through a friend she had known while taking criminal justice classes, because where else would you go to recruit a hitman?

That person contacted police, who set up a sting operation in which Strom allegedly laid out plans to kill her "on again/off again boyfriend," court documents say.

Strom allegedly offered her former classmate $1,000 and sex in exchange for the murder.

Strom remains behind bars on a $250,000 cash bond.  

Somewhat Useless Information   

• Egg proteins are considered to be highly digestible and contribute substantially to the daily nitrogen allowances in Western countries. After a study to five ileostomy patients, once after ingestion of a test meal consisting of cooked egg protein, and once after ingestion of the same test meal in raw form, researchers concluded that the true ileal digestibility of egg protein is significantly enhanced by heat-pretreatment.

• Did you know that cashew nuts grow from the bottom of fruits called “cashew apples” and that the nut beneath the apple is the part most of us actually eat? Cashew apples can be made into juices, jams, and even a liqueur called fenny, as well as used in Indian cooking, and can be used to sweeten up a curry. However, the apples are delicate, and their juice can easily stain clothing.

Calendar Information        

Happening This Week:
1-16

Iditarod Race
8-14
National Procrastination Week
Universal Women's Week
National Agriculture Week

9-15

Teen Tech Week
Girl Scout Week

International Brain Awareness Week
Stand Up! LGBT Awareness Week
11-17

Turkey Vultures Return to the Living Sign

Today Is                                                                      

·        Girl Scout Birthday Day

·        Genealogy Day

·        International Fanny Pack Day

·        Registered Dietitian Day

·        World Math Day

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·        Fiesta de las Fallas (Spain-bonfires to mark end of Winter)

·        Independence Day (Mauritius-1962 from UK)

Today’s Events through History  

1496 - Jews are expelled from Syria

1619 - Dutch settlement on Java changes name to Batavia

1881 - Andrew Watson makes his Scotland debut as the world's first black 

     international football (soccer) player and captain.

1904 - Andrew Carnegie establishes Carnegie Hero Fund

1959 - US House joins Senate approving Hawaii statehood

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

Edward Albee, Washington, DC, playwright (Virgina Woolfe, Zoo Story) is 86

Andrew Young, US ambassador to UN (1977-79)/(Mayor-D-Atlanta) is 82

Barbara Feldon, actress (Agent 99-Get Smart) is 81

Al Jarreau, jazz singer (Moonlighting) is 74

Liza Minnelli,  singer/actress (Sterile Cuckoo, Cabaret) is 68

Mitt Romney, 70th Governor of Massachusetts, US Pres candidate is 67

Jon Provost, actor (Timmy-Lassie) is 64

Darryl Strawberry, baseball right fielder (Mets, Dodgers, Yankees) is 52

Jake Tapper, American journalist is 45

Remembered for being born today

1806 - Jane Means Appleton Pierce, 1st lady

1831 - Clement Studebaker, automobile pioneer (Studebaker)

1921 - Gordon MacRae, singer/actor (Oklahoma, Carousel)

1922 - Jack Kerouac, Beat writer (On the Road, Mexico Blues)

1923 - Walter M Schirra Jr, Capt USN/ast (Mer 8, Gem 6, Ap 7)

1931 - William "Buckwheat" Thomas, actor (Little Rascals)

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           

1914 - George Westinghouse, US engineer (Westinghouse Electric), 1914, @67

1925 - Sun Yat-Sen, Chinese revolutionary president, cancer, 1925, @58

1945 - Anne Frank, diarist (Diary of Anne Frank), killed in Belsen Camp, 1945, @15

Brain Teasers

1. Sugar (sug ar) 2. Typist (typ ist) 3. Echo (ech o) 4. Turtle (tur tle) 5. Admonish (Ad mon ish)

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  §