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Almanac: Week: 49 \ Day: 337
December
Averages: 44°\17°
86004 Today: H 55°\L 28°
Ave. humidity: 56% Average Sky Cover: 90%
Wind ave: 5mph\Gusts: 16mph
Ave. High: 46° Record
High: 67° (1977)
Ave. Low: 18° Record
Low: -2° (1968)
Holiday Observances
Today:
Admission Day (Illinois-1818-21st)
¤ ¤
Coats and Toys for Kids Day
International
Day of Persons with Disabilities
National Roof over Your
Head Day
Rockefeller
Center Tree Lighting
Special
Kids Day
Observances This
Week:
1-7
Cookie
Cutter Week
International Coelenterate Biology
Week
3-9
Clerc-Gallaudet
Week
• • • • • • •
Quote of
the Day
Historical
Highlights for Today
1586 - Sir Thomas Herriot introduces potatoes to
England from Colombia
1598
- Zaldivar
"discovers" ACOMA village
1775 - 1st official US flag raised (Grand Union
Flag) aboard naval vessel USS Alfred
1828 - Andrew Jackson elected 7th US President
1833 - Oberlin College in Oh, 1st truly
coeducational college opens
1834 - 1st US dental society organized (NY)
1847 - Frederick Douglass publishes 1st issue
of his newspaper "North Star"
1866 - Paid fire dept replaces volunteer companies
1868 - 1st blacks on US trial jury appointed
for Jefferson Davis trial
1910 - Neon lights first publicly displayed (Paris
Auto Show)
1922 - 1st successful Technicolor movie (Tall of
the Sea), shown in NYC
1926 - Detective novelist Agatha
Christie mysteriously disappears for 11 days
1931 - Alka Seltzer goes on sale
1947 - Tennessee Williams' "Streetcar Named
Desire" premieres in NYC
1948 - 1st US woman army officer not in medical
corps sworn in
1950 - Paul Harvey begins his national radio
broadcast
1956 - Wilt Chamberlain's 1st collegiate basketball
game (scores 52)
1960 - Frederick Loewe/Alan Jay Lerner's
"Camelot" premieres in NYC
1964 - Police arrests 800 sit-in students at U of
Cal at Berkeley
1967 - 1st human heart transplant performed (Dr
Christian Barnard, South Africa)
1984 - 2,000 die from Union Carbide poison gas
emission in Bhopal, India
• • • • • • •
♫
Birthdays Today: ♫
How many can you identify? Answers below in Birthday’s Today
My
Rambling Thoughts
A storm may be a brewin’. It has been cool and overcast all day
with ominous gray skies. It’s too warm, way to warm, for snow, but rain must be
on the way. At this point, no one cares…as long as some moisture comes down.
I stopped by the library today and picked up the 2015 Flagstaff
calendars. Some great pics of our beautiful area.
When the Rams picture of running onto the field with their ‘hands
up’ stance, it reminded me of the 1968 Mexico City Olympics when the Black
Power fist was used on the medal stand. Wow, how times have changed. The uproar
from the Black Power moment cost two athletes dearly. Both Tommie Smith and
John Carlos were ordered off the team by the IOC and banned from the Olympic
Village. The US team had been told by the IOC that if they didn’t remove them
from the village and the team, the entire USA team would be banned. Upon their
return to the US, they received death threats. Both went on to have successful
athletic careers. The Rams ownership and the NFL said there would be no penalties
for today’s player as this was ‘Free Speech’, protected by the 1st Amendment.
After living for years as a minority on the Rez, and seeing how
Natives are treated in non-Rez towns, I kinda understand the frustration
minorities feel toward the cops. TV cop shows certainly haven’t helped. Cop
movies haven’t helped either. Because our jails and prisons are filled with
many more minorities than Whites, it sure appears that cops in many places see
color is equal to criminal. Many more middle and upper class Whites use illegal
drugs than minorities, but they don’t get prosecuted and when they do, they
usually serve shorter terms. It is time for change.
• • • • • • •
Brain
Teasers
(answers at the end of post)
What
two names of US capital cities rhyme but share no vowels?
Bonus: a friend and
reader of this blog sent this
Each
word begins and ends with the same letter. Reading down, the first letter and
the last letter spell the same word
__ENE__
__ADA__
__ERI__
__YLO__
__ARE__
Found on
You Tube with some relevance to today
OK Then…
• • • • • • •
Paraphernalia
4 the Brain:
Actor
Facts…
¤ Michael Caine became an actor because all the prettiest girls at
his school were in drama class.
¤ George Clooney once cleaned his roommate's cat litter box for
four consecutive days, then crapped in it himself, causing his roommate to
think it was from his constipated cat.
December
Holiday Facts
*Christmas-Christian
¤ In A.D. 350, Pope Julius I, bishop of Rome, proclaimed December
25 the official celebration date for the birthday of Christ.
¤ According to the Guinness world records, the tallest Christmas
tree ever cut was a 221-foot Douglas fir that was displayed in 1950 at the
Northgate Shopping Center in Seattle, Washington.
*Hanukkah-Jewish
Meaning
of the menorah
The Macabees wanted to rededicate their temple by lighting the
"eternal flame," but they only had enough consecrated oil to burn for
one day. Miraculously, that little bit of oil lasted for eight days until more
purified oil could be found. Today, Jewish families light candles or burn oil
in a candelabra called a "menorah" for the eight days of Hanukkah,
adding one candle each day. The special "helper candle" used to light
the rest of the candles each night is called the Shamash. On the first night,
the Shamash plus one other candle are lit. On the second night, the Shamash
plus two candles are lit. This process is continued on through the eight
nights. The eight-day lighting of the candles commemorates the eight-day
miracle of the oil.
*Kwanza-African-American
Umoja is
Unity
With over 2000 languages spoken on the
African continent, Kwanzaa adopted one of the many unifying languages, Swahili,
which is spoken by millions on the African continent. The name Kwanzaa comes
from a Swahili phrase meaning "first fruits."
¤ NEW ¤*12 Days
of Christmas
The song was a staple of every school Christmas Program on the
Rez. Most of the teachers and students did not know its hidden meaning from
long ago.
A
Partridge in a Pear Tree
The partridge in a pear tree is Jesus the Christ, the Son of God,
whose birthday we celebrate on December 25, the first day of Christmas. In the
song, Christ is symbolically presented as a mother partridge that feigns injury
to decoy predators from her helpless nestlings, recalling the expression of
Christ's sadness over the fate of Jerusalem: "Jerusalem! Jerusalem! How
often would I have sheltered you under my wings, as a hen does her chicks, but
you would not have it so . . . ." (Luke 13:34)
Flagstaff,
AZ History…
From 1889
Messrs., William Hall, Sam Greenwood and F. Smith in from their
ranches at the Grand Canyon report an abundance of good grass in that vicinity.
Flagstaff’s
Iconic 50…
Tourist
Home
The Tourist Home was built in 1926 by Basque immigrant Jesus
Garcia and his mother, Isabelle Garcia. The hotel was primarily a residence for
some of Flagstaff's Basque sheepherders, who had long grazed their animals on
the San Francisco Peaks.
Workers who were passing through the area boarded there as well.
The property still houses Arizona's only remaining Basque ball court.
Harper’s
Index…
Number of states that have reduced their carbon emissions by at
least 30% since 2005: 10
Number that have seen a concurrent decline in economic activity: 0
Rules of
Thumb…
JUDGING
THE EFFECTIVENESS OF AN AD
The more often you
see an ad, the more effective it is, regardless of how dull or uncreative.
Unusual
Fact of the Day…
In
1965, a Senate subcommittee predicted that by 2000, Americans would be working
20 hours a week and taking over seven weeks of vacation each year.
• • • • • • •
Joke-of-the-day
A couple was making their first doctors visit
prior to the birth of their first child. After the exam, the doctor took a
small stamp and stamped the wife’s stomach with indelible ink. The man and his
wife were curious about what the stamp was for, so when they got home, the man
took out his magnifying glass to try to see what is was. In very small letters,
the stamp said, “When you can read this, come back and see me.”
Yep, It
Really Happened
Indonesia's holy "Sex Mountain" on the island of Java is
still performing its incomprehensible function of making Muslims feel
prosperous and optimistic if they have intercourse with strangers, as reported
in November by Australia's "SBS Dateline" TV program. A reporter
journeyed to Mount Kemukus (near the heavily populated Surakarta) to observe
the mass adultery whose origin dates to the 16th century. Otherwise-devout
pilgrims pray, bathe and pair off with other worshippers (repeating the ritual
seven times, 35 days apart) to bring themselves the good life -- except that
the sex must be with people other than their spouses. Clerics generally
denounce the Kemukus experience, but more so since prostitutes (collecting
"offerings") are lately so plentiful at the site.
Somewhat
Useless Information
¤
As of 2014, Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer has been broadcast on television for
50 years.
¤ Rudolph's red nose was originally created using a 12v light bulb painted red.
¤ Yukon Cornelius discovers the peppermint mine on his third prospecting
attempt.
¤ There are 43 animals featured throughout Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
¤ One car battery could power Rudolph's nose for 33 hours! That's much more
efficient than regular headlights, which would drain a battery in only a few
hours.
¤ In order for Santa to fly once around the world before the battery runs out,
he would have to fly at about 755 mph! (And that's without stopping for cookies
and milk.)
• • • • • • •
Today’s
Events through History
1557 - 1st Covenant of Scottish Protestants form
1678 - Edmund Halley receives MA from The Queen's
College, Oxford
1835 - 1st US mutual fire insurance company issues
1st policy (RI)
1917 - After 20 years of planning-construction, the
Quebec Bridge opens to traffic.
1992 - UN Security Council votes unanimous for US
led forces to enter Somalia
• • • • • • •
Birthday’s
Today
Stephen
Rubin, English attorney/shoe manufacturer (Reebok, Adidas) is 77
Ozzy
Osbourne, rock vocalist (Black Sabbath-Bark at the Moon) is 66
Daryl
Hannah, actress (Blade Runner) is 54
Julianne
Moore, actress (Magnolia) is 54
Katarina
Witt, figure skater (Olympic-Gold-1984, 88) is 49
Brendan
Fraser, actor (Mummy series) is 46
Jake T.
Austin, Disney actor is 20
• • •
Remembered
for being born today
Samuel
Crompton, English inventor (mule-jenny spinning machine) [1753-1827]
Gilbert
Stuart, US, portrait painter (painted Washington) [1755-1828]
Joseph
Conrad, Poland, novelist (Lord Jim, Heart of Darkness), [1857-1924]
John
Backus
, inventor (FORTRAN computer language) [1924-2007]
Ferlin
Husky, American country singer [1925-2011]
Andy
Williams, singer (Moon River) [1927-2012]
• • • • • • •
Historical
Obits Today
Richard
Todd, Irish-born British actor, 2009, @90
Mary
Baker Eddy, founder (Christian Science (Monitor)), 1910, @89
Pierre A Renoir,
French painter/sculptor, 1919, @78
Madeline
Kahn, actress, comedian, ovarian cancer, 1999, @57
Robert
Louis Stevenson, Scottish novelist, stoke, 1894, @44
• • • • • • •
Brain Teasers Answers
Austin and Boston
Bonus:
TREND (TENET, RADAR, EERIE, NYLON, DARED)
• • • • • • •
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…§
