Feb 22

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Feb 22, 2019 Week: 08 \ Day: 53

86004 Today: H 26° \ L 18° \ Average Sky Cover: 99% 

Wind:   3mph\Gusts:  5mph Visibility: 1/2 mi

Record High: 64°[2002]   Record Low: -0°[1955]

FebAverages: 45°\19°

Today’s Quote

“Snow isn’t just pretty. It also cleanses our world and our senses,

not just of the soot and grime of a mining town,

but also of a kind of weary familiarity,

a taken-for-granted quality to which our eyes are all too susceptible.”

John Burnside

Random Tidbits

One study found that while most men believe they are "supposed" to pay for dates, and a fair number of women let them, nearly half of men say they would dump a woman who never offered to help pay.

Observances This Week

Date (Fruit) Week: 15-24
National Entrepreneurship Week: 16-23 Link
Build A Better Trade Show Image Week: 17-23
National Engineers Week: 17-23
National FFA Week: 17-24 Link 
Brotherhood / Sisterhood Week: 17-23  Link
Random Acts of Kindness Week: 17-23 Link
Bird Health Awareness Week: 18-24 Link  
Through With The Chew: 18-22  Link
American Camp Week: 19-22 Link
American Birkenbreiner Race: 20-24
Texas Cowboy Poetry Gathering: 22-23

Observances for Today

Be Humble Day

George Washington's Birthday
Girl Scout Cookie Weekend-24 Link

National Cook a Sweet Potato Day

National Margarita Day Link
National Wildlife Day Link 
Skip The Straw Day  Link
Tex Avery Day Link
Walking the Dog Day

Woolworth's Day
World Thinking Day Link

My Rambling Thoughts

The weather guy was right on target…I have well over a foot of snow at my place, and it’s been coming down all day, with no end in sight. There are times that the snow is so heavy I can barely see the trees across the parking area. The forest needs the moisture, but enough already…spread it out a little.

Thank goodness for on-line banking. I needed to move some money to my checking account after the final payment for the Siberian Rail trip and signing up for Tahiti just days apart. Wouldn’t have gone to the bank today. But now I’m set.

I’ve been a big fan of Empire since it started a few years ago. I was shocked when one of the stars claimed to have been a victim of a hate crime. I didn’t comment when it happened…learned my lesson from the last time when I condemned the MAGA hat/Native American debacle before knowing the whole story. I still don’t know the whole story, but things are looking bad for the actor. He will now get his day in court, not as a victim but as a perp.

Today’s Significant Historical Events

1600’s

1630 Native Amerian Indians introduce pilgrims to popcorn, at       Thanksgiving

1656 New Amsterdam granted a Jewish burial site

1800’s

1819 Spain renounces claims to Oregon Country, Florida (Adams-Onís

            Treaty)

1876 Johns Hopkins University opens

1879 1st 5 cent & 10 cent store opened by Frank W. Woolworth in

            Utica, New York (failed almost immediately)

1881 "Cleopatra's Needle", a 3,500-year-old Ancient Egyptian obelisk

            is erected in Central Park, New York

1900’s

1909 Great White Fleet, 1st US fleet to circle the globe, returns to

            Virginia

1932 Purple Heart (the Badge of Military Merit) award reinstituted

1987 Bruno Marie-Rose runs world record 200m indoor (20.36 sec)

1988 Bonnie Blair skates world record 500m (39.10 sec)

1995 Steve Fossett completes 1st air balloon over Pacific Ocean

            (9600 km)

1997 Dolly the Sheep, world's first cloned mammal (from an adult cell)

            is announced by the Roslin Institute in Scotland

2000’s

2017 Discovery of 7 Earth-sized planets orbiting star Trappist-1

            announced in Journal "Nature" - raises possibility of alien life

2017 US President Donald Trump overturns Obama directive on

            Transgender rights to use toilets

Birthdays Today

1732 George Washington,

1st President of the United States (1789-97) and Commander-in-

Chief of the Continental Army, born in Westmoreland, Virginia

(d. 1799-@67-following bloodletting)

1857 Robert Baden-Powell,

British officer and founder of the modern scouting movement,

born in Paddington, London

(d. 1941-@83)

1889 Olave Baden-Powell,

English founder of the Girl Guide

(d. 1977-@88)

1892 Edna St Vincent Millay,

poet/dramatist/feminist (Harp Weaver-Pulitzer Prize),

born in Rockland, Maine

(d. 1950-@58-heart attack/fall)

1900 Seán Ó Faoláin

[John Whelan],

Irish short story writer (Murder at Cobbler's Hulk),

born in Cork City, County Cork, Ireland

(d. 1991-@91)

1918 Alfred J. Gross,

American inventor (invented the walkie-talkie),

born in Toronto, Canada

(d. 2000-@82)

1932 Ted Kennedy,

Boston Massachusetts Politician (Sen-D-Mass 1962- 2009 ),

born in Boston,

(d. 2009@77-brain cancer)

1962 Steve Irwin,

Australian naturalist & TV personality (The Crocodile Hunter),

born in Melbourne, Victoria

(d. 2006-@44-multiple stingray barbs)

1945 Oliver

[William Oliver Swofford],

American pop singer (Good Morning Starshine, Jean),

born in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina

(d. 2000-@54-lymphoma)

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69- Julius Erving,

NBA basketball star

43- Drew Barrymore,

American actress (ET, Firestarter, Poison Ivy), born in Los Angeles

Historical Obits Today

@97-2018 Nanette Fabray

[Ruby Fabares],

American actress and singer (Love Life, Caesar's Hour,

One Day at a Time)

@89-2002 Charles "Chuck" Jones,

American animator and cartoonist best known for his work

with Warner Bros. (Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Wile E. Coyote,

Road Runner, Porky Pig)

@88-2016 Wesley A Clark,

American computer designer (first personal computer - LINC)

@87-2016 Sonny James

[James Loden],

American country music singer-songwriter (Young Love)

@85-1827 Charles Willson Peale,

American painter remembered for his portraits of leading

figures of the American Revolution (George Washington)

@82-1965 Felix Frankfurter,

Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court

@82-1832 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe,

German social philosopher (Faust)

@77-1875 Charles Lyell,

British geologist (Elements of Geology)

@66-1987 David Susskind,

TV host (Open End, David Susskind Show),

dies after heart attack

@60-1512 Amerigo Vespucci,

Italian explorer (America)

@58-1987 Andy Warhol,

American pop artist and film producer (Frankenstein, Bad),

dies of a heart attack