4-24-14

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Flagstaff Almanac: Day: 114  / Week: 17 

Today: L 30°…H 61°… Ave. humidity: 46%

    Wind: ave:   5mph; Gusts:  28mph  

    Average High: 63° Record High:  77° (1949)

    Average Low: 29° Record Low:  10° (1900)

           

Quote of the Day

 

Today’s Historical Highlights

1184 BC - The Greeks enter Troy using the Trojan Horse (traditional date)

1704 - "Boston News-Letter" 1st successful newspaper in US, forms

1800 - Library of Congress establishes with $5,000 allocation

1888 - Eastman Kodak forms

1897 - 1st reporter, William Price (Wash Star), assigned to White House

1951 - Betsy Rawls wins LPGA Sacramento Women's Golf Invitational Open

1953 - Winston Churchill knighted by Queen Elizabeth II

1961 - JFK accepts "sole responsibility" following Bay of Pigs

2005 - Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger inaugurated as the 265th Pope Benedict XVI.

 

♫  Today’s Birthdays: ♫  

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

My Free Rambling Thoughts   

Breezy but not unbearable. Just part of spring, I guess.

Our governor wisely vetoed a bill that would have allowed guns into any public building except schools, unless there was a metal detector at the door. Of course the ultra-right in the legislature and in the general public are outraged at her move to the far left. Yesterday I got a robocall from some group asking who I would vote for US Rep in my district. I stupidly told them. Today a robocall informing me that Obama care was a complete failure and that a rally will be held in Flagstaff this week at some hotel to show our Rep and President Obama and our Governor that Obamacare is not for AZ. There will even be an unnamed ‘doctor’ there to inform us how bad it really is. Obviously I will not be attending this far-right rally. I can only hope that their rally gets all their venom out of their system and that they just shut up.  

I had to recheck my calendar today…yep it was an almost snow free season, and now the Weather Service is saying 2-3" snow is in the weekend forecast. Out little mountain town had planned a major emergency preparedness drill for Saturday with lots of fire trucks, ambulances, and police participating to see if they were ready for some unforeseen emergency. They were keeping the details hush hush to make it more realistic. Now they have postponed it to May because they may actually be needed this weekend during our storm. Hmmmm.

Game  Center (answers at the end of post)

Brain Teasers

For each of the pairs of words below, insert a word in the blank space between them to form two separate words such that the inserted word finishes the first word and begins the second. For example, given "MAN ____ ON", you would insert the word "GO" to form "MANGO" and "GOON". The hint gives the number of letters in each of the words that must be inserted.

WIN ____ HERE

DISC ____ AGE

TEN ____ OR

ANT ____ LOCK

SIN ____ SHIP

Lifestyle  Substance:     

Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

Shirley MacLaine - Sweet Georgia Brown

You Made Me Stronger - David McCallum and Jill Ireland

Pat Paulson editorials 1

WHO'S ON FIRST

OK Then…

Harper’s Index 

Percentage change in Freedom of Information Act request made to the NSA since the Snowden leaks: +671

Unusual Fact of the Day

While Antarctica is very cold, it's not all ice and snow. About 1,200 square miles of the continent are made up of "dry valleys" where mountains and ridges keep out any precipitation.  

Joke-of-the-day

One day a little girl came home from school, and said to her mother, "Mommy, today in school I was punished for something that I didn't do."

The mother exclaimed, "But that's terrible! I'm going to have a talk with your teacher about this ... by the way, what was it that you didn't do?"

 The little girl replied, "My homework." 

Rules of Thumb:   

PACKING LIGHT

You never need to pack an umbrella. You can always buy a cheap one at your destination and leave it behind at the end of your trip.

Yeah, It Really Happened

MILFORD, Ohio (UPI) - An 89-year-old Ohio grandmother has decided that she would rather give up her apartment than give up cigarettes. Beulah Toombs was given the opportunity to quit smoking when her apartment building in Milford went smoke-free a little more than a year ago. Toombs continued smoking in her unit at the AHEPA 127 Apartments and was labeled as "non-compliant." Management asked her to quit one more time -- Toombs declined. "I don't think so," she said in an interview with Cincinnati.com. "This is my home, and I think you can do whatever you want to in your home." Residents at AHEPA 127 are low-income seniors who pay discounted rent under the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Section 202. "My mom is getting older, and this is causing her so much stress," said daughter Mary Ann Burgoyne. "She kept telling me that she was paying her rent. She was a little confused. She thought they might put her in a debtor’s prison." Burgoyne attempted to enlist a senior-advocacy group to help her mother, but was told this was "the future" and that Toombs should quit smoking. Toombs will be clearing out of the building in the next week or so.

Somewhat Useless Information   

Scientists suggest that stress is part of the evolutionary drive because it has enabled humans to survive. Specifically, stress temporarily increases awareness and improves physical performance.

Stress also causes capillaries to close, which restricts bleeding if a flesh wound should occur, and makes the blood "stickier," in preparation for an injury. Such a reaction, however, also increases the probability of developing a blood clot.

 

While it is a myth that stress can turn hair gray, stress can cause hair loss. Stress can also alter blood sugar levels, which can cause mood swings, fatigue, hyperglycemia, and metabolic syndrome, a major risk factor for heart attack and diabetes.

Calendar Information        

Today Is

Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day 
Library of Congress Day
Mother, Father Deaf Day
National Pet Parent's Day
Take Our Daughters & Sons to Work Day 
World Meningitis Day
                                                          
Today’s Events through History  

1891 - Start of Sherlock Holmes adventure "Final Problem"

1944 - United Negro College Fund incorporates

1968 - Mauritius becomes a member state of the United Nations

1981 - IBM-PC computer introduced

1990 - Gruinard Island, Scotland, is officially declared free of the anthrax disease after 48 years of quarantine.

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

Shirley MacLaine, actress/mystic (Irma la Douce) is 80

Barbra Streisand, Brooklyn, singer/actress is 72

Jean Paul Gaultier, French fashion designer is 62

Cedric the Entertainer, comedian and actor is 50

Kelly Clarkson, singer \winner American Idol is 32

Remembered for being born today

1581-1661 - Vincent de Paul, French saint  

1922-2005 - J D Cannon, Salmon Idaho, actor (McCloud, Ike, Call to Glory)

1936-1990 - Jill Ireland, London, actress (Breakout, Assassination, Chino)

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           

Estée Lauder, American cosmetics entrepreneur, 2004, @97
Wallis Simpson, British King Edward VIII abdicated for her, 1986, @89

Bud Abbott, comedian (Abbott & Costello), cancer, 1974, @78

Daniel Defoe, English novelist (Robinson Crusoe), 1731. @71ish

Pat Paulsen, comedian (Smothers Brothers Show), cancer, 1997, @69

Hans [Hendrik A] Kramers, physicist (quantum mechanics), 1958, @57

Tommy Noonan, actor (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes), brain tumor, 1968, @45

Brain Teasers                                         

NOW (winnow, nowhere)
US (discus, usage)
DON (tendon, donor)
HEM (anthem, hemlock)
KING (sinking, kingship)

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  §