Oct 17

FYI: Any blue text is a link. Click to check it out!

Oct  17, 2018 Week: 42 \ Day: 290

86004 Today: H 37° \ L 23° \ Average Sky Cover: 95% 

Wind:   13mph\Gusts:  -mph Visibility: 10 mi

Record High: 78°[1973]   Record Low: 18°[1998]

Oct Averages: 63°\31°

Today’s Quote

Life is the art of drawing without an eraser.

John W. Gardner

Harper’s Index

12/22/2017

Date on which the UK announced a return to blue-

colored passports

$353,000,000

Value of the contract for the passports,

which was awarded to a French-Dutch company

Observances This Week

10-17

Take Your Medicine Americans Week

12-20

Bone and Joint Health National Awareness Week Link

14-20
Bullying Bystanders Unite Week 
Drink Local Wine Week
Earth Science Week Link 
Emergency Nurses Week
National Chestnut Week  
International Infection Prevention Week Link
Mediation Week Link 
National Food Bank Week
Veterinary Technicians Week Link

15-19

Choose To Be G.R.E.A.T. Week  Link
International Dyslexia Association Reading Week
Medical Assistants Recognition Week  Link
National Health Education Week  Link
National Nuclear Science Week
National School Bus Safety Week 
YWCA Week Without Violence Link 

17-24

Food & Drug Interactions and Awareness Week

Observances for Today

Black Poetry Day
BRA Day USA  Link  
Hagfish Day Link 
Information Overload Day Link 
International Day for the Eradication of Poverty
International Print Day  Link  
Medical Assistants Recognition Day Link  
Mulligan Day
National Edge Day Link
National Fossil Day  Link
National Pasta Day  Link
National Playing Card Collectors Day
Pay Back A Friend Day Link
National Take Your Parents To Lunch Day

Support Your Local Chamber of Commerce  
Wear Something Gaudy Day

Today’s Significant US Historical Events

Today’s Significant International Historical Events 

1800’s                                         

1855 Bessemer steelmaking process patented

1900’s                                         

1904 Bank of Italy (Bank of America) opens its doors

1907 Guglielmo Marconi's company begins the first commercial transatlantic wireless service between Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada and Clifden, Ireland

1919 The Radio Corporation of America created as subsidiary of General Electric

1933 Albert Einstein arrives in US as a refugee from Nazi Germany

1957 French author Albert Camus awarded Nobel Prize in Literature

1961 NY Museum of Modern Art hangs Henri Matisse's "Le Bateau" upside-down It wasn't corrected until December 3rd

1967 "Hair" premieres on Broadway

1975 UN passes resolution saying "Zionism is a form of racism"

1978 President Jimmy Carter signs bill restoring US citizenship to Jefferson Davis

1979 Mother Teresa of Calcutta awarded Nobel Peace Prize

1979 US President Jimmy Carter signs legislation creating Department of Education

2000’s                                         

2003 The pinnacle was fitted on the roof of Taipei 101, a 101-floor skyscraper in Taipei, allowing it to surpass the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur by 50 meters (165 feet) and become the World's tallest highrise.

2007 The Dalai Lama receives the United States Congressional Gold Medal

2012 Lance Armstrong loses a host of endorsements in the wake of his doping scandal

My Rambling Thoughts

Woke up to a snowstorm this morning. While the weather guy said 2-4” not the much is sticking. It’s a tad too warm for that. But we have periods of huge snowflakes followed by old fashioned snow, followed by huge flakes again. It been doing that most of the day. There is about 1” on the vehicles, but the ground and streets are basically clear.

Snow puts me in a cleaning mood, so the kitchen got a good mopping and carpets got vacuumed.

Disappointed the Sen. Warren’s heritage remains in the news. The sad commentary continues.

I think that the current administration has fired another shot in its collective foot. They want to have drug commercials show the price. First, anyone with insurance never pays the retail price. Second, when we do see how expensive drugs are, there very well might be a huge push to get some kind of national insurance to lower the prices. We do need a huge reform in our healthcare system. The pharmacist is prevented by law from telling you about less expensive ways to get the drug. Insurance companies make deals to set the prices for drugs and some companies make better deals than others. It is a real mess, and maybe this idea will help. Right now it is like buying a new vehicle. There is a stick price and then the dealing begins. This is no way to run drug prices.

Birthdays Today

@-  indicates age at death

80’s

@89→Arthur Miller,

American playwright (Death of a Salesman, Crucible), born in NYC, New York (d. 2005)

@88→Jimmy Breslin,

American author and columnist (NY Post, News, Newsday), born in NYC, New York (d. 2017)

@85→Tom Poston,

American actor (Newhart, Mork & Mindy, Steve Allen Show, Newhart), born in Columbus, Ohio (d. 2007)

@84→Spring Byington,

American actress (December Bride), born in Colorado Springs, Colorado (d. 1971)

@81→Jerry Siegel,

 comic book writer (Superman) (d.1996)

70’s

@70→Irene Ryan,

American actress (Granny-Beverly Hillbillies), born in El Paso, Texas (d. 1973) glioblastoma

60’s

@69→Robert "Evel" Knievel,

American motorcycle daredevil (Snake River Canyon), born in Butte, Montana (d. 2007) pulmonary fibrosis

@69→Margot Kidder,

Canadian American actress (Lois Lane in Superman films, Amityville Horror), born in Yellowknife, Canada (d. 2018) suicide

62→Mae Jemison,

1st African American woman in space (STS 47), born in Decatur, Alabama

50’s

59→Alan Jackson,

country singer

58→Norm MacDonald,

Canadian comedian

@53→Paul Bert,

French Zoologist, Physiologist and pioneer of aerospace medicine whose study of the effects of air pressure on the body, such as altitude sickness and 'the bends', made possible space and ocean exploration, born in Auxerre, Burgundy (d. 1886)

50→Ziggy Marley,

Reggae singer

40’s

46→Emenim (Marshall Mathers),

rapper

Historical Obits Today

90’s

@93→1868 Laura Secord,

Canadian heroine of the war of 1812, dies at 93

80’s

@89→2007 Joey Bishop,

American entertainer, member of the Rat Pack

70’s

@76→2007 Teresa Brewer,

American pop and jazz singer (Put Another Nickel In), PSP

@75→1979 S J Perelman,

American author, humorist and screenwriter (The New Yorker, Around the World in 80 Days)

@72→1991 Tennessee Ernie Ford,

American country music singer and actor (Sixteen Tons), liver disease

60’s

@66→2002 Derek Bell,

Irish harpist (The Chieftans) heart attack in Phoenix

@64→1990 Ralph Abernathy,

American civil rights leader (Southern Christian Leadership Conference), blood clot

30’s

@39→1849 Frederic Chopin,

Polish/French pianist/composer, long illness