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Flagstaff
Almanac: Day: 203
/ Week: 30
July
Averages: 81° \ 51°
Today: Average
Sky Cover: 8%
H 82°… L 55°… Ave. humidity: 42%
Wind: ave: 7mph;
Gusts: 14mph
Average High: 82° Record High: 92° (1996)
Average Low: 51°
Record Low: 38° (1955)
Quote of
the Day
Historical
Highlights for Today
1582 - Willem
van Orange moves from Antwerp to Delft
1686 - City
of Albany, NY chartered
1729 - Diamonds
found in Minas Geras Brazil
1893 - Katharine
Lee Bates writes "America the Beautiful" in Colorado
1912 - 5th
Olympic games in Stockholm, Sweden closes
1918 - Lightning
kills 504 sheep in Utah's Wasatch National Park
1939 - 1st
black woman judge (Jane Matilda Bolin-NYC)
1942 - Gasoline rationing using coupons begins
19551955 - 1st VP to preside over cabinet meeting-R Nixon
19551955 - 1st VP to preside over cabinet meeting-R Nixon
1960 - Cuba
nationalizes all US-owned sugar factories
1967 - Jimi Hendrix quits as opening act of the
Monkees' tour
1988 - 500
US scientists pledge to boycott Pentagon germ-warfare research
1991 - Jeffrey
Dahmer confesses to killing 17 males in 1978
1995 - Susan Smith found guilty of drowning her two
children in South Carolina
♫
Birthdays Today: ♫
How many can you identify? Answers in Birthday’s Today
below
My
Rambling Thoughts
Beautiful Monday. Not too warm, not to windy, a great summer day.
Took a nice walk around the neighborhood. Great way to wake up and welcome the
new week.
Terrorism is always scary. I have to say with all the airplanes in
the sky everyday it is an odd coincidence that two Malaysian airlines planes
would have these problems in such a short time.
Game Center (answers at the
end of post)
Brain Teasers
I
was on a road trip with a friend when we drove past a very tall radio tower. I
told my friend "That thing has to be at least a thousand feet tall!"
He looked out the window for a moment, and said "I'll bet it's closer to
1500 feet." We stopped at a gas station and asked how tall the tower was,
and it was exactly 1500 feet tall! Now that I owe my friend a steak dinner, how
could he tell how tall the tower was?
Lifestyle Substance:
Found on
You Tube with some relevance to today
OK Then…
Harper’s
Index
Percentage
of spending last year by Our County Deserves Better, the largest US Tea Party
PAC, that went to fundraising: 79
That
went to campaign contributions: 0.09
Unusual
Fact of the Day
Moths are falsely blamed for eating clothing. It's actually their
larvae that cause the fabric damage.
Popular
Native Languages…
Sioux
Sioux includes three dialects spoken in North and South Dakota,
Minnesota and Nebraska. According to the UNESCO Interactive Atlas of the
World’s Languages in Danger, the Yankton-Yanktonai dialect is primarily spoken
on the Yankton and Crow Creek Reservations and on the northern part of the
Standing Rock Reservation. Teton (Lakota) is spoken on the Cheyenne River,
Lower Brule, Pine Ridge, Rosebud, and Sisseton Reservations and the southern
part of Standing Rock. Off-reservation speakers live in Rapid City, Minneapolis,
and other upper Midwest cities. Sioux is also spoken in several Canadian
provinces.
Common
Sayings from the Bible…
Nothing
but skin and bones
Job 19:19-20 All my intimate friends detest me; those I love have
turned against me. I am nothing but skin and bones
Big Lies…
The First
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving was named after an entire tribe’s massacre—not a
peaceful meal between pilgrims and Indians.
In 1621, Wampanoag Indians investigated gun and cannon fire at a
Pilgrim settlement to see them celebrating a successful harvest. The
Indians—all male warriors, were fed as a gesture of peace. The act was not
repeated annually.
RELATED: What
Really Happened at the First Thanksgiving? The Wampanoag Side of the Tale
In 1636, when a murdered man was discovered in a boat in Plymouth,
English Major John Mason collected his soldiers and killed and burned down the
wigwams of all the neighboring Pequot Indians who were blamed for the murder.
The following day, Plymouth Governor William Bradford applauded
the massacre of the 400 Indians, including the women and children. The Governor
of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, William Newell, proclaimed: “From that day
forth, shall be a day of celebration and thanks giving for subduing the Pequot.”
For the next 100 years, every Thanksgiving Day ordained by a governor was in
honor of the bloody victory, thanking God that the battle had been won.
People
Facts…
On average, men's noses are 10% larger than women's.
Historical
Facts…
In 1700s, the deer skin was a common medium of exchange between
the trading settlers and the native Red Indians in America. This is how a buck
became a slang for a dollar.
Retro
Native Humor…
What did the Dine' lady say first time she went into Pizza Hut?
"Who threw up on my fry bread?"
Common
Phrase Origins…
Go the
Whole 9 Yards
Meaning: To try
one’s best
History: World War
II Fighter pilots received a 9-yard chain of ammunition. Therefore, when a
pilot used all of his ammunition on one target, he gave it “the whole 9 yards.”
Flagstaff,
AZ History…
The city was named after a shaved pine tree with a U.S. flag atop
it. For years, several flagstaffs vied for the right to be “THE” flagstaff that
inspired the name “Flagstaff.”
Three flagstaffs were main contenders. One, called “1876
flagstaff,” was raised July 4, 1876, to celebrate the nation’s Centennial by a
party of settlers on their way from Boston to Prescott; another one stood in
the vicinity of Old Town, called the “Old Town flagpole”; and one stood near
the railroad right-of-way at the foot of Switzer Mesa, called the “East tree.”
The matter, after lengthy research by local historian and
newspaperman Platt Cline, has been, on the whole, settled.
And the winner was the “1876 flagstaff.” The flagstaff was located
in the China Canyon area, which is near the current location of the former
Flagstaff Middle School and Frances Short Pond off Thorpe Road. In 1876, it was
a good spot with water for settlers to camp. A survey map of 1878 confirms the
general location.
The research indicates that because the tree had been dead when
turned into a flagstaff, it eventually rotted and fell.
In 1985, Flagstaff native Gov. Bruce Babbitt dedicated a new
flagstaff in the same general area as a historical monument. A plaque reads:
“Dedicated July 4, 1985, by Governor Bruce Babbitt to honor the Boston settlers
of 1876, whose patriotic spirit gave our city its name.”
Joke-of-the-day
In a beauty
contest among birds, the finalists believe it or not were a chicken, an ostrich
and a flamingo. And soon after the show, the judges were unanimous in reaching
the final choice. And guess who won? The chicken, of course! The judges
admitted that both the ostrich, and flamingo legs were beautiful, but the
chicken had prettier laid eggs.
Rules of
Thumb:
SELLING A NEW CAR
Your customer has
decided to buy the car when he or she asks what colors are available. Stop
selling and close the deal.
Yeah, It
Really Happened
Here's a gift for someone who has everything: A tiny town in far
northeastern Wyoming named Aladdin.
You won't need a genie in a bottle to buy it. Just $1.5 million
gets you 30 acres and 15 buildings, including a 118-year-old general store
that's still operating.
Rick and Judy Brengle bought the town 28 years ago and now want to
move on from the full-time job of running it.
"We bought this place because I had empty-nest
syndrome," Judy Brengle said. "All our kids had gone to college, so
my husband bought me a town."
Aladdin doesn't have a government population count but about 15
people live in the town on a state highway midway between Devils Tower National
Monument and Sturgis, South Dakota, famous for its huge annual motorcycle
rally.
Recreation opportunities abound in the nearby Black Hills and Bear
Lodge Mountains.
Aladdin isn't the only Wyoming town to hit the market. Last year,
the southeast Wyoming town of Buford, population 1, sold for $900,000 and was
renamed PhinDeli Town by its new owner to promote a brand of Vietnamese coffee
sold there.
The Brengles haven't changed a thing about the two-story general
store in Aladdin, except to put on a new roof. A pot-bellied stove provides
heat, the Gillette News-Record reported.
The place sells fishing supplies, groceries, antiques, art, beer
and hardware. It doesn't have running water, but there are two working
outhouses nearby.
Aladdin got its name in 1894 from folks who hoped to strike it
rich just like the fellow in the Arabian Nights folktale.
Owning Aladdin has been a full-time job and then some for the
Brengles. When Judy Brengle isn't ordering clothes or doing inventory, she's
sorting mail or selling beer and cigarettes.
She said she has grandkids who will keep tending the store and
post office indefinitely.
"We've had several interested buyers, but not very many
people want to work seven days a week," Brengle said.
Somewhat
Useless Information
There
was an extended period (1347 – 1750) in which Europe suffered from intermittent
bubonic plague epidemics.
In
England the Great Plague (1665–66) was the last major epidemic of the bubonic
plague and killed an estimated 100,000 people, which was 15% of London’s
population. It was transmitted through the bite of an infected rat flea.
Check
Your Calendar
Observances
This Week:
18-25
Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS) Education & Awareness Week
20-26
Everybody Deserves A Massage Week; National Parenting Gifted
Children Week; Captive Nations Week; National Independent Retailers Week; National
Zoo Keeper Week
Today
Is
Casual Pi Day (22/7)
National Penuche Fudge Day
Pied Piper Day
National Penuche Fudge Day
Pied Piper Day
Rat-catchers Day
Spooners (Spoonerism) Day
Spooners (Spoonerism) Day
Today’s
Events through History
1790 - United
States enacts a law for the formal regulation of trade with Indians titled
"An Act providing for Holding a Treaty or Treaties to Establish Peace with
Certain Indian Tribes."
1963 - Sonny Liston KOs Floyd Patterson in 1 for
heavyweight boxing title
1992 - Colombia
drug baron Pablo Escobar escapes prison
Birthday’s
Today
Robert J
Dole, (Sen-R Kansas, 1969-95)/presidential candidate is 91
Orson
Bean, actor/comedian (To Tell the Truth) is 86
Oscar de
la Renta, Dom Rep, designer (Coty Hall of Fame-1973) is 82
Alex
Trebek, Ontario, TV game host (High Rollers, Jeopardy) is 74
George
Clinton, rocker (Parliament-Funkadelic) is 73
Danny
Glover, actor (Lethal Weapon) is 68
Don
Henley, rock drummer/vocalist (Eagles-Desparado) is 67
Rob Estes,
American actor is 51
David
Spade, comedian (SNL, Tommy Boy, Black Sheep) is 50
John
Leguizamo, Bogotá, actor is 50
Selena
Gomez, American actress is 22
Prince
George of Cambridge, 3rd in line to the English throne is 1
Remembered
for being born today
William
Archibald Spooner, London, reverend/inventor (spoonerisms) (1844-1930)
Emma
Lazarus, poet ("New Colossus" - base of Statue of Liberty) (1849-1887)
Edward
Hopper, US painter (House by the Railroad) (1882-1967)
Rose
Fitzgerald Kennedy, mom of JFK, RFK & Ted, (1890-1995 )
Amy
Vanderbilt, American authority on etiquette (1908-1974
Historical
Obits Today
Carl
Sandburg, poet (Abraham Lincoln: Prairie Years), 1967, @89
Estelle
Getty, American actress, dementia, 2008, @84
Dennis
Farina, American actor, pulmonary embolism,2013, @69
John
Dillinger, shot dead at Biograph Theater in Chicago, shot, 1934, @33
Marie
Francois Xavier Bichat, a founder of histology, fall, 1802, @30
Brain
Teasers
Radio towers are always painted with alternating red and white
stripes. If the tower is over 700 feet tall, every stripe is 100 feet high. My
friend just counted the 15 stripes and knew immediately it was 1500 feet tall.
This only works if it's over 700 feet; if it's under 700 feet, the tower will
always have seven stripes. Bonus Factoid: The top stripe on the tower is always
red.
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 §
