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Almanac: Week: 48 \ Day: 332
November
Averages: 51° \ 22°
Holiday Observances
Today:
Independence Day (Albania-1912-after 500+ yrs -from Ottoman)
Independence Day (Ka Lahui: Hawaii-Kingdom
recognized-1843)
Independence Day (Mauritania-1960-from France)
Independence Day (Panama-1821-from Spain)
Republic Day (Chad)
¤ ¤
Black Friday
Buy Nothing Day
Flossing
Day
Fur Free
Friday
Maize Day
Make Your Own Head Day
National
Day of Listening
National Native
American Heritage Day
Red Planet Day
Sinkie
Day –eating leftovers over the sink so there are no
dishes
You're Welcome Day
Observances This
Week:
24-30
GERD
Awareness Week; National Bible Week; National Game & Puzzle Week; Better
Conversation Week; Church/State Separation Week; National Family Week
• • • •
Quote of
the Day
Historical
Highlights for Today
1520 - Ferdinand
Magellan begins crossing Pacific Ocean
1775 - 2nd
Continental Congress formally establishes US Navy
1814 - The
Times of London is for the 1st time printed by automatic, steam powered
presses
1853 - Olympia
forms as capital of Washington Territory
1854 - Dutch
army stops Chinese uprising in Borneo
1905 - Arthur
Griffith forms Sinn Fein in Dublin
1916 - 1st
German air attack on London
1919 - US-born
Lady Astor elected 1st female member of British House of Commons
1929 - Adm
Richard E Byrd makes 1st South Pole flight
1932 - Groucho
Marx performed on radio for 1st time
1948 - "Hopalong
Cassidy" premieres on TV
1960 - CBS
radio expands hourly news coverage from 5 to 10 minutes
1981 - Bear Bryant
wins his 315th game - college football's winningest coach
1988 - Picasso's
"Acrobat & Harlequin" sells for $38.46 million
• • • •
♫
Birthdays Today: ♫
How many can you identify? Answers below in Birthday’s Today
My
Rambling Thoughts
What a great Thanksgiving Day. Got a message from my sister-in-law
at 6:15, wishing me a happy Thanksgiving from Mexico. Then about 11a I got a
call from my brother and sister-in-law to wish me a Happy Thanksgiving. They
were traveling out of Mexico City to see a concert by their flutist friend,
Claire, who was scheduled to do the concert in Mexico City, but due to the
demonstrations, the venue was moved to a town about 50 miles away. Claire and
ICE, the musicians she travels with, are fantastic. She will also be with us
for Christmas. They are coming back to NYC on the 1st.
I prepared my turkey breast, dressing with mushrooms, apples, and
onions, salad, cranberry sauce, etc. Turns out it was much easier than I
expected…and very tasty and moist. The package said 2 to 2-1/2 hours, but it
took 3-1/4 hrs to get to 165°, but that was OK too.
I did clean the bathroom and laundry room but didn’t get around to
the other bathrooms or to putting up the tree.
Guess that will happen tomorrow.
Our special edition paper came last night. There was a note in
yesterday’s paper that the paper would be selling for $4, instead of the normal
seventy-five cents…and that this would shorten any subscriptions by a couple of
days for the paper. Not a happy camper about that. Actually, they had a special
section on the Iconic 50 things of Flagstaff, which I’m sharing for those of
you not lucky enough to live in this town. So the $4 cost was not as bad as
expected. Then of course there were many, many ads for today and tomorrow. I’m certainly
not shopping today as this is a time for workers to be with their families. I
doubt I will be going out very early tomorrow either. May make a quick trip to
a couple of stores to pick up a couple of specials, but by the time I go, they
will probably be gone.
• • • •
Brain
Teasers
(answers at the end of post)
TRANCE,
STAIN, CHIME, TUBA and PERK. These words all belong to the same logical family.
Which of the following words also belongs to that family?
GERMANE, EMBARGO, BANANA and NIGHTMARE
Found on
You Tube with some relevance to today
OK Then…
• • • •
Paraphernalia
4 the Brain:
Actor
Facts…
¤ The Rock accidentally knocked out Michael Clarke Duncan while
filming a fight scene for The Scorpion King and had a custom Rolex made as an
apology gift, but liked the watch so much that he kept it for himself.
¤ During World War 1, Harry Houdini took 1 year off performing to
help sell war bonds and teach American soldiers how to escape from German
handcuffs.
Flagstaff,
AZ History…
50 YEARS
AGO
The William's Civil Defense Committee is considering the old
Johnson Canyon railroad tunnel as an air raid shelter. It was built in 1882 is
about 400' long and is steel-lined. When the Santa Fe line was doubled in 1910
it became the eastbound track only, then in 1960, when the lines were
realigned, it was abandoned. Jack Munns, Civil Defense Director.
**NEW**Flagstaff’s
Iconic 50…
Historic
Flagpole
Historians generally agree that Flagstaff derives its name from a
flag-raising ceremony held July 4, 1876, by a group of settlers from New
England who were camped within sight of this historic monument.
In February and May of 1876, two groups of settlers left Boston
and traveled westward, intent upon establishing a colony in the valley of the
Colorado Chiquito (Little Colorado River) near present-day Winslow. Known as
the first and second Boston parties, these colonist had been lured by
second-hand tales of the fertile farm lands, healthful climate, and vast
mineral resources of northern Arizona. Upon arriving at the Little Colorado
River, the first Boston party found the area already occupied by Mormon
settlers from Utah. Disappointed by the presence of the Mormons and
disillusioned by the lack of farming land, the scarcity of water, and the harsh
climate, the settlers continued westward toward the San Francisco Peaks and
Prescott.
By early July, the second Boston party had reached present-day
Flagstaff and was camped near this monument, an area then known as the McMillan
Ranch. In observance of the nation's Centennial, the settlers cut down a tall
pine tree, trimmed off its branches, attached a flag, and raised the flagstaff.
On the morning of July 4, 1876, an appropriate patriotic ceremony was held.
The flag carried by the second Boston party was packed in
anticipation of the need to celebrate the nation's Centennial somewhere in the
frontier wilderness. The United States flag in 1876 had thirty-seven stars laid
out in rows numbering 8-7-7-7-8. Before the standardization that came with mass
production, American flags varied greatly in size, fabric, color shades, and in
the arrangement of the stars.
An historic marker is located at 35° 12.473′ N,
111° 39.248′ W in Flagstaff, Arizona, in Coconino County. Marker is
on North Thorpe Road, on the left when traveling west.
Harper’s
Index…
Number of inmates in Quebec prisons and jails who have escaped by
helicopter in the past 15 months: 5
Pilgrim
Fact…
Thanksgiving
Pies
Today, our Thanksgiving revolves around the giant bird, but wild
turkeys weighed only around eight pounds (definitely not enough for company).
Therefore, seafood and other meats were significant parts of the meal, as were
a wide range of pies. Though Thanksgiving now ends on a sweet note with apple,
sweet potato, or pumpkin pies, in Pilgrim times, both savory and sweet pies
were baked for the meal as a way to preserve fruits and meat. The pies were
left outside in the cold and then brought in and reheated when guests came
over.
Utensils
Today we take forks for granted, but the Pilgrims didn’t use them.
They used a knife, spoon, large napkin, and their fingers to eat their meals.
They shared both plates and drinking vessels, which unfortunately contributed
to the spread of disease.
Rules of
Thumb…
PLANNING
YOUR TRAINING
Never increase your
training by more than 10 percent a week. Increases of 10 to 15 percent every
three weeks make more sense.
Unusual
Fact of the Day…
Pentheraphobia
is the persistent fear of your mother-in-law.
• • • •
Joke-of-the-day
Bob, a 70-year-old, extremely wealthy widower,
shows up at the Country Club with a breathtakingly beautiful and very sexy 25-year-old
blonde-haired woman who knocks everyone's socks off with her youthful sex
appeal and charm and who hangs over Bob's arm and listens intently to his every
word. His buddies at the club are all aghast. At the very first chance, they
corner him and ask, 'Bob, how'd you get the
trophy girlfriend?'
Bob replies, 'Girlfriend? She's my wife!'
They are knocked over, but continue to ask.
'So, how'd you persuade her to marry you?'
'I lied about my age', Bob replies.
'What, did you tell her you were only 50?'
Bob smiles and says, 'No, I told her I was
90.'
Yep, It
Really Happened
SHANDONG, China (UPI) - Brave fathers-to-be are getting shocking
lessons at a pioneering Chinese hospital in what it feels like for women to
give birth. A nurse in the free lesson at Hangzhou Aima maternity hospital in
China's Shandong province sends an electric current to a pad placed above the
abdomen. Over five minutes, the strength of the current is increased, causing
men to "writhe in agony," according to witnesses. One man compared
the pain to feeling as if his "heart and lungs were being ripped
out."
Organizers hope the experience will make men more sensitive to
their partners while they labor. It's an unusual exercise in a nation where men
often don't attend the birth of their children. Hospital administrators
emphasis that there's no lasting damage to men, and also note that there's no
real comparison between the "pain experience camp" and women's
suffering during the much longer-lasting agony of childbirth. Some men couldn't
hack it and bailed out mid-shock. "I thought giving birth to a baby was
something natural, something really normal that women could get through,"
one nearly-dad told the BBC. "After this I realized it's not easy giving
birth. It's just painful."
Somewhat
Useless Information
How
many writers of the Simpsons went to Harvard?
“The
Simpsons” is widely known as it is an American animated sitcom created by Matt
Groening, whose series is a satirical depiction of a middle class American
lifestyle epitomized by the Simpson family set in the fictional town of
Springfield.
The
main characters are Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie.
What
you may have ignored so far is that 24 writers of the Simpsons have attended
Harvard University. They are:
Al
Jean
Dan
McGrath
John
Collier
Greg
Daniels
Patric
Verrone
Bill
Canterbury
David
X. Cohen
Jon
Vitti
Richard
Appel
Bill
Oakley
David
Sacks
Ken
Keeler
Steve
Tompkins
Conan
O’Brien (Also president of the Harvard Lampoon)
George
Meyer
Max
Pross
Steve
Young
Dan
Greaney
Jeff
Martin
Mike
Reiss
Tom
Gammill
Nell
Scovell
Daniel
Chun
Matt
Warburton
•
• • •
Today’s
Events through History
1717 - Blackbeard attacks
a French merchant vessel called "La Concorde", which he would capture
and rename as the "Queen Anne's Revenge"
1729
- Natchez
Indians massacre 138 Frenchmen, 35 French women, and 56 children at Fort
Rosalie, near the site of modern-day Natchez, Mississippi
1893 - Women
vote in a national election for the 1st time: New Zealand general election
1951 - Military coup
under Col Adib el-Shishakli in Syria
1975 - Bobby Orr plays
his last game for the Boston Bruins
1990 - Margaret
Thatcher resigns as Britain's PM
Birthday’s
Today
Berry Gordy, record
company owner (Motown) is 86
Gary Hart, (Sen-CO)
is 79
Randy Newman, vocalist
(Short People) is 72
Ed Harris, actor
(Right Stuff) is 65
S Epatha Merkerson, actress
(stage, screen, and TV) is 63
Jon Stewart (Jonathan
Stuart Leibowitz) political satirist is 53
apl.de.ap (Allan
Pineda Lindo), Filipino-American rapper (Black Eyed Peas) is 41
Remembered
for being born today
Margaret Tudor, wife of
James IV of Scotland (1489-1541)
William Blake, London,
poet/painter, (1757-1827)
Henry Bacon, American
architect (Lincoln Memorial) (1866-1924)
Gloria Grahame,
American actress (1923-1981)
Hope Lange, actress
(Ghost & Mrs Muir) (1933-2003)
Anna Nicole
"Vickie" Smith, playmate\media fav (1967-2007)
• • • •
Historical
Obits Today
Garry Moore, TV host
(I've Got A Secret), emphysema, 1993, @78
James Naismith, creator
of basketball, stroke, 1939, @78
Washington Irving,
American author (Sleepy Hollow), heart attack , 1859, @76
Choh Hao Li, bio-chemist prof
(isolated growth hormones), 1987, @74
Enrico Fermi,
Italian/US nuclear physicist (Nobel 1938), cancer 1954, @53
Jeffrey
Dahmer, American serial killer, killed in prison, 1994, @34
•
• • •
Brain Teasers Answers
GERMANE. In the logical family of words, you can change one letter
in each word and create a country`s name. FRANCE, SPAIN, CHILE, CUBA and PERU.
Germane can be changed into GERMANY.
• • • •
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 contains mistakes and sadly once 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…§
