5-18-14

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Flagstaff Almanac: Day: 138  / Week: 21 

May Averages: 68° \ 34°
Today: Average Sky Cover: 1%
    H 77°… L 45°… Ave. humidity: 32%
    Wind: ave:   mph; Gusts:  mph  
    Average High: 68° Record High:  82° (1970)
    Average Low: 35° Record Low:  21° (1977)
         
Quote of the Day

Today’s Historical Highlights

1096 - Crusaders massacre Jews of Worms

1642 - Montreal, Canada, founded
1843 - United Free Church of Scotland forms
1897 - Dracula, a novel by Irish author Bram Stoker is published.
1917 - US passes Selective Service act
1933 - Tennessee Valley Act (TVA) Act signed by FDR, to build dams
1934 - Congress approves "Lindbergh Act" making kidnapping a capital offense
1934 - TWA began commercial service
1942 - NYC ends night baseball games for rest of WW II
1951 - UN moves HQ to NYC
1953 - 1st woman to break sound barrier (Jacqueline Cochrane, USA)
1980 - Mount St Helens blows its top in Washington State, 60 die

♫  Today’s Birthdays: ♫  

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

My Free Rambling Thoughts   

It has been a couple of months since I have had my angioedema. Woke up this morning with the pesky swollen upper left lip. Thought I must be recovering since it had no tell-tale heat feeling, but took my meds anyway. Surprise, it was just beginning and spent a couple of hours swelling the rest of my upper lip, then my lower lip. Finally the meds kicked in and the swelling decreased. It is nothing serious but sure in a pain in the….face.

My brother and his wife are off on a business trip to several cities in Russia. Her furniture designs from several companies are footing the cost. She will be working most of the trip as will my brother, as her assistant something or other. The good thing about their business trips is that they fly 1^st class and are shuttled around to the various cities in a personal car. Hope they have a productive trip.

Had good long conversation with my friend from Tuba who retired officially yesterday. He is looking forward to lots of projects, the first being moving into his new residence off the BIA compound. He bought the place a couple of years ago from his cousin-sister and had his son and others fixing it up. He just couldn’t break the tie to BIA. After the talk, I now know that he ready and will have a good life ahead. He retired along with 9 others and was at the school’s annual retirement party. The group together had 190 years of BIA service…quite a feat. He read me his speech, where he talked about is 43 years of BIA life. Amazing poem with honesty and his classic Navajo humor. He said people were laughing throughout and then in the ending wiping a few tears.

Another piece of good news…Tuba Boarding is now requiring each student have one hour a day of Navajo language instruction. The school is adopting Rosetta Stone.  Good move and long overdue.

Game  Center (answers at the end of post)

Brain Teasers

Customer services at RightWrite headquarters received the following letter recently. Luckily their top puzzle solvers were able to determine the meaning and help Mrs Miggins. Can you work it out what her problem was?

Da S,
ld lk cmlan ab h f m .
hs ls aa n k ccl.
As can s, hs ls a mssng fm hs dcmn.
ld b v gafl f cld cc hs blm fhh.
Man hanks,
Ms Mggns.

Lifestyle  Substance:     

Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

Bewitched - The End

Bruno Walter speaks about Gustav Mahler

George Strait - The Chair

Pernell Roberts - They Call The Wind Maria

SARA PALIN- TINA FAY on SNL

OK Then…

Harper’s Index 

Number of highs chool studnets in Mississippi who took the Advanced Plaemnt test in computer science last year: 1

Unusual Fact of the Day

No bears are native to the continent of Australia. (The Koalas aren't bears, but marsupials.)

Top Reasons Poverty is on the Rise…

5 . Slowed Demand

One of the clearest signs of a healthy economy is robust demand and spending within varied consumer markets. America is showing decreased consumer demand, especially in segments like mortgage lending, which is a leading indicator of affluence and capital spending. The relationship between slowed spending and poverty is clear; Americans simply don’t have funds available to make major purchases.
Until joblessness and other limitations to economic mobility relax their negative influence on American systems, poverty will continue to rise. Uneven distribution of wealth and impacts remaining from the recent recession work against economic sustainability, creating a system in which opportunities for advancement are limited and poverty prospers.

Oldest Trees in the World…

Jōmon Sugi

Jōmon Sugi, located in Yakushima, Japan, is the oldest and largest cryptomeria tree on the island, and is one of many reasons why the island was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The tree dates to at least 2,000 years old, but some experts believe it could be older than 5,000 years old. Under that theory, it's possible that Jōmon Sugi is the oldest tree in the world — even older than Methuselah. Regardless of the numbers, it's a tree that deserves mention here.

Travel Destination Info…France - $48.7 billion

International tourists spent the 3rd most amount of money in France in 2009 with $48.7 billion dollars. France has a great mix of great natural wonders like the Alps and Pyrenees Mountains as well as great cultural tourist sites like the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, the Palace of Versailles and the great city of Paris itself which is the most visited city in the world. The French Riviera is another great tourist site in France but the most visited tourist site in the country and in Europe is Disneyland Paris with 15.4 million visitors in 2009.

Top Countries to get Dual Citizenship

Italy

Like Ireland, your ancestry may be your ticket to Italian citizenship. Italy considers you an automatic citizen if your paternal grandfather or maternal grandmother is an Italian citizen. If you have other Italian ancestors, you can gain naturalization by living in Italy for at least three years. Otherwise, you have to live in the country for at least 10 years. However, if you work for the Italian government in any capacity for at least five years, even if the work was in a different country, you can gain naturalization without any residency requirements.

 

Joke-of-the-day

Earl and Bob, both obsessed with baseball, never missed their favorite team’s game. They promised, whoever died first, and went to heaven, would come back to earth and tell the other if there was baseball in heaven. One day, Earl died. Bob waited for him to come back. Finally Earl did. He said to Bob. "I have good news and bad news. I'll tell you the good news first. There is baseball in heaven." Bob said, "That’s the best news!" Then Earl said, time for the bad news....”You're pitching tomorrow night." 

Rules of Thumb:   

BUILDING A DOCK

Figure $20 a square foot per deck space plus $750 per piling when building a dock.

Yeah, It Really Happened

You would think, if you had a 12-foot python as a pet, that you would keep an eye on it, but apparently the conventions of pet ownership in Texas are a little more relaxed than elsewhere. Because just such a specimen managed to show up in the tub of a startled Central Texas woman.

Police believe the African python slipped into the house of Veronica Rodriguez when she left the back door open after bathing her three household guinea pigs and putting the critters in outdoor pens.
Rodriguez says she heard strange noises, returned to the bathroom and discovered the snake crawling into the tub. She called 911.
I didn't know guinea pigs needed baths, but if anything would attract a python I would imagine three of them splashing around in water would do it.
Animal control officers removed the snake, using a city trash can as a temporary receptacle for the reptile, after which it was returned to its owner.
No guinea pigs were harmed.

Somewhat Useless Information   

World’s largest Rubik’s cube is in Macao, China. It is 220 feet high, 13 feet wide

4 out of 5 Border Patrol drug arrests in involve US citizens

16% of all Google requests each day are original

The first handheld cell phone is now 40 years old, had 30 minutes of talk time, and weighed 2 pounds.

Calendar Information        

This Week’s Observances:

12-18
American Craft Beer Week 
Children's Book Week
National Bike to Work Week
National Dog Bite Prevention Week  
National Etiquette Week
Work At Home Moms Week

13-19
Salvation Army Week  
Neuropathy Awareness Week
National Stuttering Awareness Week

18-24
National Safe Boating Week
EMS (Emergency Medical Services) Week
National New Friends, Old Friends Week
World Trade Week 

Today Is  

Bay to Breakers Race: Oldest Footrace in America!
HIV Vaccine Awareness Day 
I Love Reese’s Day 
International Museum Day 
Mother Whistler Day
Neighbor Day
Turn Beauty Inside Out Day

Visit Your Relatives Day
                                                      
Today’s Events through History  

1593 - Playwright Thomas Kyd's accusations of heresy lead to an arrest warrant for Christopher Marlowe.

1631 - John Winthrop is elected 1st governor of Massachusetts
1830 - Edwin Budding of England signs an agreement for manufacture of his invention, lawn mower
1926 - Evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson vanished in Venice California She showed up a month later & said she had been kidnapped

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

Bill Macy, actor (Walter-Maude, Oh! Calcutta) is 91

Dwayne Hickman, actor (Dobie Gillis) is 80
Reggie Jackson, "Mr October" baseball rightfielder (Yankees, A's) is 68
George Strait, country singer (All My Exes Live in Texas) is 62
Yun Fat Chow, actor (Better Tomorrow) is 59
Tina Fey, writer/actress (Saturday Night Live) is 44

Remembered for being born today

1048-1131 - Omar Khayyám, Persian mathematician, poet and philosopher

1872-1970 - Bertrand Russell, England, mathematician/philosopher (Nobel 1950)
1897-1991 - Frank Capra, director (Its a Wonderful Life, Arsenic & Old Lace)
1902-1984 - [Robert] Meredith Willson, composer (Music Man)
1912-2001 - Perry Como, [Pierino], singer/TV (Perry Como Show)
1920-2005 - John Paul II, [Karol Wojtyla], 264th Roman Catholic Pope
1928-2010 - Pernell Roberts, actor (Adam-Bonanza, Trapper John MD)

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           

Jeannette Rankin, 1st Congresswoman \ pacifist, 1973, @92

Steve Forrest, actor (SWAT), 2013, @87
Elizabeth Montgomery, actress (Bewitched), cancer, 1995, @62
Jill Ireland, actress (Carry on Nurse, Family), cancer, 1990, @54
Gustav Mahler, Austr composer, long iillness, 1911, @50

Brain Teasers                                         

The letter was written on a typewriter which has a problem with the top row of letters - they did not print. The letter should have read:

Dear Sir,

I would like to complain about the top row of my typewriter.

These letters appear not to work correctly.
As you can see, these letters are missing from this document.
I would be very grateful if you could correct this problem forthwith.

Many thanks,

Mrs Miggins.

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  §