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Almanac: Week: 29 \ Day: 198
July Averages: 82°\50°
86004 Today: H 86° \ L 51° Average Sky Cover: 30%
Wind ave: 7mph\Gusts: 24mph
Ave.
High: 81° Record High: 93° (2009) Ave. Low: 52° Record Low:
40° (1904)
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Observances Today:
Celebration
of The Horse Day
Peach
Ice Cream Day
Wrong
Way Corrigan Day
Yellow
Pig Day-a geek/math thing
Constitution
Day (South Korea)
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Observances This Week:
Sports
Cliché Week: 12-16
Rabbit Week: 15-21
National Baby Food Week: 15-18
National Ventriloquism Week:
15-18
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Quote of the Day
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US Historical Highlights for Today
1821 - Spain cedes Florida to US
1862 - US army authorized to accept blacks as
laborers
1867 - 1st US dental school, Harvard School of
Dental Medicine, established
1879 - 1st railroad opens in Hawaii
1897 - 1st ship arrives in Seattle carrying gold
from Yukon
1935-The City of Phoenix
purchased Sky Harbor Airport
1945 - Potsdam Conference (Truman, Stalin,
Churchill) holds 1st meeting
1954 - 1st major league game where majority of team
is black (Dodgers)
1954 - Construction begins on Disneyland.
1955 - Disneyland
televises its grand opening in Anaheim, California.
1988 - Florence Griffith Joyner of USA sets 100m
woman's record (10.49)
2004 - Martha Stewart is sentenced to five months
in prison plus five months in home confinement for lying to federal
investigators
2005 - Tiger Woods wins his 10th major winning
The British Open Championship by 5 strokes. Woods becomes only the second
golfer, after Jack Nicklaus, to win each major more than once
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Today’s World Events through History
1717 - Handel's "Water Music" premieres
on the river Thames in London
1841 - British humorous and satirical magazine
"Punch" first published; it finally closed in 2002
1936 - Spanish generals Francisco Franco and
Emilio Mola lead a right-wing uprising, starting the Spanish Civil War
1959 - Paleoanthropologist Mary Leakey discovers
the partial skull of a new species of early human ancestor, Zinjanthropus
boisei or 'Zinj' (now called Paranthropus boisei) that lived in Africa almost 2
million years ago
1964 - ANC leader Nelson Mandela, recently
sentenced to life imprisonment, is awarded the Joliot Curie Gold Medal for Peace
1975 - Four British soldiers are killed by a
Provisional Irish Republican Army remote-controlled bomb near Forkill, County
Armagh; the attack was the first major breach of a February truce
1976 - 21st modern Olympic games opens in Montreal
The opening of the Summer Olympics is marred by 25 African teams boycotting the
New Zealand team.
2004 - Former South African President Nelson
Mandela calls for commitment by the world to take action against Aids
2014 - Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashes
(presumed shot down by either pro-Russian separatists or the Ukrainian
militia), killing all 283 passengers and 15 crew on board
§ § § § §
♫ Birthdays
Today: ♫
How many can you identify? Answers below in Birthdays Today
§ § § § §
My Rambling Thoughts
Nice day, just awaiting the daily monsoon. It’s clouding up so
guess it will be here soon.
Had a good lunch with Cheryl…Chinese…real Chinese…very good. Great
conversation too. Mary is enjoying the beach in Portland.
Came upstairs to my office and the cable box wasn’t working…again.
Turns out, after calling tech support, that there is an on/off button on the
remote that powers down the box…didn’t know that. Everything is fine now.
Feeling a little tech challenged right now. Guess I shouldn’t feel too bad as
Cheryl spent over an hour with tech regarding her iPod. She said the guy had to keep referring to
manuals because all she wanted to do was make a CD of the songs on her iPod. He
said ‘no one has ever asked me that before…why do you want to do that?’ ‘because
I can’t listen to my iPod through my car speakers’. He figured out how to make
the CD and told her what to buy so the iPod would connect to the car speakers
through an FM channel.
Wheels of justice are slow, but sure worked in CO. The guy who
shot all those people at the movie theater is found guilty. On to the sentencing
phase. I believe that life in prison
without parole is a much harsher sentence than the death penalty. Let him stew
in his actions.
§ § § § §
Brain Teasers
(answers at the end of post)
It
doesn't hurt to take a hard look at yourself from time to time. This little
test should help you get started.
During a visit to a mental asylum, a visitor asked the Director what the
criteria is that defines if a patient should be institutionalized.
"Well," said the Director, "we fill up a bathtub. Then we offer
a teaspoon, a teacup, and a bucket to the patient and ask the patient to empty
the bathtub."
Okay, here's your test:
1. Would you use the spoon?
2. Would you use the teacup?
3. Would you use the bucket?
"Oh, I understand," said the visitor. "A normal person would
choose the bucket, as it is larger than the spoon."
What was the director's response?
§ § § § §
Found on You Tube with some relevance to today
§ § § § §
…Cool Facts…
A koi fish, named "Hanako", was owned by several
individuals over many years and lived to be 226 years old, dying in 1977.
In 1943, a Pan Am Airline chef snuck whiskey into passengers'
coffee to warm them up on a winter flight. When asked what kind of coffee they
were being served, he improvised "Irish Coffee," creating the
now-famous cocktail.
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…Flagstaff, AZ
History…
50 YEARS
AGO-1965
The forest fire danger is extreme. There have been 88 fires in the
Coconino Forest this week, of which 31 close to town were man-caused. Fire
Chief Jack Peavey.
The new 18-mile Wupatki Loop Road is now paved. This five-year
project was a joint endeavor by Coconino County, the National Park Service and
the Coconino National Forest. The Wupatki ancient ballcourt is the only completely
excavated one in northern Arizona and one of few extant anywhere in the
Southwest or in Mexico. It dates back to 1150 - 1325 AD during the peak of the
area’s occupation. There is also a blowhole where visitors can sit and “feel”
the Earth breathe.
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…Harper’s Index…
+8 – percentage
change since 210 in the average white US households
-11 – of all
other US households
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… USA Facts…
There is a town called Okay, OK. It has a population of 600
people.
There's a restaurant in Albuquerque called Tim's Place that serves
breakfast, lunch, and hugs - and it's owned by a man with Down's Syndrome.
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…Unusual Fact of the
Day…
Amazingly, blue whales can slow their heart rate to four or five
beats per minute in order to conserve oxygen during deep dives.
§ § § § §
2 jokes for the day
"I hope this plane doesn't travel faster
than sound," said the old lady to the stewardess.
"Why?"
"Because my friend and I want to talk, that's why."
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Over breakfast one morning, a woman said to
her husband, "I bet you don't know what day this is."
"Of course I do," he indignantly answered, going out the door on his
way to the office.
At 10 a.m., the doorbell rang, and when the woman opened the door, she was
handed a box containing a dozen long-stemmed red roses.
At 1 p.m., a foil-wrapped, two pound box of her favorite chocolates arrived.
Later, a boutique delivered a designer dress.
The woman couldn't wait for her husband to come home. "First the flowers,
then the candy, and then the dress!" she exclaimed.
"I've never had a more wonderful Groundhog Day in my whole life!"
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Yep, It Really
Happened
DELAND,
Fla. (UPI) - A DeLand, Fla., woman said she thought she had been hit by an
errant firecracker while dining with her friends on July 4th, but days later
she visited a doctor who found a bullet embedded in her leg. Heather Charlebois
was just sitting down at a cafe late Saturday night when she felt a sting on
her leg. She and her boyfriend cleaned up her wound in the restaurant's
bathroom, but not seeing any blood, they figured she must have been burnt by a
firecracker. "My first thought was somebody hit me, slapped me open handed
really hard on my leg and pinched me, but it did not make any sense because I
didn't see anyone," Charlebois told The Daytona Beach News-Journal. Four
days later, when the pain still hadn't gone away, she visited a doctor, who
ordered an X-ray and found a .38-caliber bullet embedded about 4 centimeters
into her thigh, she told WESH-TV in Orlando, Fla. DeLand police are now trying
to figure out who shot the bullet. "Well, it's safe to say that at the
moment we don't know where it came from," said DeLand police Sgt. Chris
Estes. "There is no indication a gun was fired in close proximity to where
she was sitting at this point so, another theory is that it was fired into the
air from a distance." In the meantime, doctors say the bullet is too close
to a major artery in Charlebois' leg, so they're leaving it where it is.
"I feel very fortunate," Charlebois said. "I have four kids and
we have been through a lot."
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Somewhat Useless
Information
At
the time, Annie was the most expensive musical ever made. Different sources
record the actual cost of Annie differently, but most agree it was around $40
million to make; a large part of that ($9.5 million) went into buying the
rights to the popular 1977 Broadway play the film was based on.
Albert Finney wasn't the first choice to play Warbucks. There were many actors
ahead of him in the line-up. Finney had Hollywood experience, but the stage was
more his realm. Reportedly, Sean Connery was approached, but didn't want to
appear bald.
The first incarnation of the show-stopping "Easy Street" was
literally performed in a street, with the three enthralling villains of the
film, Hannigan, Rooster, and St. Clair, displaying their joyous greed against a
backdrop of dozens of dancing street vendors.
Annie attracted Tim Curry because musicals were some of the only movies he was
allowed to watch growing up. He was the son of a Royal Navy Chaplain and a
school secretary. He described his childhood as "strict," and that
fact might have had an effect on his career choices.
Ten-year-old Aileen Quinn was awarded the Razzie for Worst Actress in a lead
role, but took home a Best Young Artist Award, too. She also received a Golden
Globe nomination.
Annie's climactic scene was partly shot on the Passaic River's NX railroad
drawbridge, which took place in the dead of night. New Jersey's child labor
laws prohibited children employed in making films from working after 11:30 p.m.
and before 7 a.m. More night hours would be needed to complete the shoot, and
the state government was accommodating, with Governor Brendan Byrne
helicoptering to the set to sign a bill amending the law.
§ § § § §
Birthdays Today
80 - Donald Sutherland, St John New
Brunswick, Canadian actor (M*A*S*H)
80 - Diahann Carroll, Bronx, actress (Julia,
Claudine, Dominique-Dynasty)
76 - Spencer Davis, Wales, vocalist (Spencer
Davis Group-Gimme Some Lovin)
73 - Gale Garnett, Auckland NZ, singer
(We'll Sing in the Sunshine)
68 - Camilla Parker Bowles (Duchess of
Cornwall), wife of Prince Charles
63 - David Hasselhoff, Balt Md, actor (Night
Rider, Mitch-Baywatch)
54 - Mark Burnett, English-born television
producer
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Born this day…Died in __@__
Art
Linkletter, Saskatchewan Canada, TV host (People are Funny)-2010@97
Phyllis
Diller, Lima Ohio, comedienne and actress-2012@95
James
Cagney, actor (Yankee Doodle Dandy)-1986@86
John
Jacob Astor, Germany, richest man in US, banker/fur trader-1848@84
Erle
Stanley Gardner, detective writer (Perry Mason)-1970@80
Toni
Stone [Marcenia Lyle Alberga], American baseball player (first
woman to play in a men's league)-1996@75
Elbridge
Gerry, 5th VP, Mass-Gov, invented gerrymandering-18141@70
Phoebe
Snow, singer (Theme from "It's a Different World")-2011@60
Ismail I, Shah of
Persia, converted Iran from Sunni to Shi'ah-1524@36
§ § § § §
Historical Obits Today
Walter
Cronkite, American broadcast journalist-2009@92
Elaine
Stritch, American actress-2014@89
Mickey
Spillane, American author-2006@88
Dorothea
Dix, French social activist-1887@85
Jim
Bridger, American mountain man, Indian fighter, and explorer-1881@77
Ty Cobb,
baseball great (Det Tigers), cancer-1961@74
Adam
Smith, Scottish economist and philosopher-1790@67
Jay Hanna "Dizzy"
Dean, pitcher (St Louis Cards), heart attack-1974@64
Billie
Holiday, jazz singer, cirrhosis-1959@44
John
Coltrane, US jazz sax/composer (Round Midnight), cancer-1967@40
§ § § § §
Brain Teasers Answers
"No," answered the Director. "A normal person would
pull the plug."
So, how did *YOU* do?
§ § § § §
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…§
