Mar 22

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Mar 22, 2019 Week: 12 \ Day: 81

86004 Today: H 42° \ L 26° \ Average Sky Cover: 45% 

Wind:   9mph\Gusts:  13mph Visibility: 10 mi

Record High: 68°[2004]   Record Low: -1°[1952]

Mar Averages: 51°\23° (6 days with rain)

Today’s Quote

A moralist dwells on the happiness of duty;

an immoralist on the duty of happiness.

-- Anonymous

Random Tidbits

Outside of New England o.k. really didn't become famous until the presidential candidacy of Martin Van Buren in 1840 and the invention of the telegraph. The first was important because Van Buren acquired the nickname "Old Kinderhook" after his home town in Upstate New York: "OK now could have a double meaning: Old Kinderhook was all correct."

Then, the invention of the telegraph made the use of OK as shorthand for "all correct" commonplace.

Observances This Week

Lent: 6-Apr 20

American Chocolate Week: 17-23 

National Animal Poison Prevention Week: 17-23    

National Inhalant and Poisons Awareness Week: 17-23   

World Folktales & Fables Week: 17-23

Act Happy Week: 18-24

International Teach Music Week: 18-24

National Fix A Leak Week: 18-24 

Shakespeare Week: 18-24 

Wellderly Week: 18-24

National Cherry Blossom Festival: 20-4/14  

International Week of Solidarity with People's Struggling Against Racism & Discrimination: 21-27

American Crossword Puzzle Days: 22-24 

Observances for Today

As Young As You Feel Day
International Day of The Seal
International Goof Off Day
Talk Like William Shatner Day Link
Tuskegee Airmen Day
World Day for Water (aka World Water Day)  Link
World Day of Metta

My Rambling Thoughts

I woke up this morning to a dusting of snow. Typical spring weather for 7000’. Sun shines, then more clouds come in, then the sun comes back. Then it snows again. Headed out to my weekly trip to Sam’s Club. Stopped at Walgreens to get my necessary passport photos for my Visas to Russia and China. Got what I needed and headed home.

Looks like Boeing could have prevented the two crashed planes, if the purchasing airline had purchased the ‘extra’ package. And all the pilots who flew them got a 60-minute iPad training about the new plane. And now it is reported that the FAA can’t do much due to budget cuts. In case you haven’t noticed, airline seats in ‘coach’ keep getting smaller and smaller. Turns out the FAA can’t do the necessary studies for these changes, so they let the airplane builders decide just about everything about the plane. I guess airlines can still choose the colors for the seats and carpet. At least for now. Shameful!

Today’s Significant Historical Events

1600’s

1622 First American Indian (Powhatan) massacre of Europeans in

            Jamestown Virginia, 347 killed

1638 Religious dissident Anne Hutchinson expelled from

            Massachusetts Bay Colony

1700’s

1784 The Emerald Buddha is moved with great ceremony to

            its current place in Wat Phra Kaew, Thailand

1800’s

1841 A method for alkali starch extraction is patented in the US by

            Orlando Jones, which is later applied to corn (cornstarch)

1861 1st US nursing school chartered

1900’s

1903 Niagara Falls runs out of water because of a drought

1933 FDR makes wine & beer with up to 3.2% alcohol legal

1965 US confirms its troops used chemical warfare against the Vietcong

1978 Karl Wallenda of The Flying Wallendas dies after falling off a tight-

            rope between two hotels in San Juan, Puerto Rico

2000’s

2014 The US and EU impose sanctions on Russia

2018 US President Donald Trump imposes $60 billion worth of tariffs

            on Chinese imports

2018 The "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" between Hawaii and California

            has 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic and increasing rapidly according

            to new research

Birthdays Today

1868 Robert A. Millikan,

American physicist (photoelectric effect; Nobel 1923),

born in Morrison, Illinois

(d. 1953:@85)

1908 Louis D L'Amour,

author (Hondo, Jubal Sackett), born in Jamestown, North Dakota

(d. 1988:@80)

1923 Marcel Marceau,

mime (Barbarella, Silent Movie)

(d. 2007:@84)

1887 Chico Marx,

[Leonard Marx],

American comedian (Marx Brothers),

born in NYC, New York

(d. 1961:@74- Arteriosclerosis)

1912 Karl Malden

[Mladen George Sekulovich],

American actor (Streets of San Francisco, American Express, A

 Streetcar Named Desire),

born in Chicago, Illinois

(d. 2009:@97)

1920 James Brown,

American actor (Rin Tin Tin-Lt. Rip Masters),

born in Desdemona, Texas

(d. 1992:@72-lung cancer)

1920 Ross Martin

[Martin Rosenblatt],

Polish-American actor (Mr Lucky, The Wild Wild West),

born in Gródek, Lwowskie, Poland

(d. 1981:@61-heart attack)

1920 Werner Klemperer,

German-American actor

(Judgment at Nuremberg, Hogan's Heroes),

born in Cologne, Germany

(d. 2000:@80)

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89- Stephen Sondheim,

American lyricist (West Side Story, Company),

born in NYC, New York

88- William Shatner,

Canadian author, director and actor (Star Trek, T J Hooker),

born in Montreal, Quebec

85- Orrin Hatch,

politician (Sen-R-UT, 1977- ),

born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

72- James Patterson,

American author (Alex Cross, Witch and Wizard),

born in Newburgh, New York

71- Andrew Lloyd Webber,

Composer

60- Matthew Modine,  

actor (Full Metal Jacket)

48-Keegan-Michael Key,

comedian

43- Reese Witherspoon,

American actress

(Pleasantville, Legally Blonde, Sweet Home Alabama),

born in New Orleans, Louisiana

37- Constance Wu,

Taiwanese-American actress (Fresh Off the Boat),

born in Richmond, Virginia

Historical Obits Today

@90-2001 William Hanna,

American animator and studio founder

@73-1978 Karl Wallenda,

falls to death walking high-wire in PR

@48-1958 Michael "Mike" Todd

[Avrom Goldbogen],

American producer (Around the World in 80 Days) and

3rd husband of Elizabeth Taylor,

dies in a plane crash