May 1

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May 1, 2019 Week: 18 \ Day: 121

86004:   H 58° \ L 35° \ Average Sky Cover: 5% 

Nearest wildfire:  682mi. Nearest lightning:  440mi

Wind:   7mph\Gusts:  13mph Visibility: 10 mi

Record High: 80°[1947]   Record Low: 17°[1972]

Mar Averages: 68°\34° (3 days with rain)

Today’s Quote

People seldom refuse help,

if one offers it in the right way.

A. C. Benson

Random Tidbits

Hansen Gregory, an American ship captain, is the man credited with inventing the classic hole-in-the-middle shape of the modern doughnut in 1847 by simply punching out the middle. Other versions of the story describe Gregory piercing the middle of the doughnut on the ship's steering wheel so he could use both hands to steer.

In 1963 when President John F. Kennedy announced in Berlin, "Ich bin ein Berliner," he did not say, as is commonly believed, that he was a jelly doughnut. While there was a popular jelly donut called a 'Berliner', the phrase Kennedy used would not only have been understood by the German audience, but it is probably the best way to express what the president had intended to say. To state, "Ich bin Berliner" would imply that he was born in Berlin, whereas the word 'ein' implied he was a Berliner in spirit.

More Observances This Month

ALS Awareness Month  Link
(Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis or Lou Gehrig's Disease) 
American Wetlands Month Link
APS Awareness Month Link
Arthritis Awareness Month
Aramanth Month Link
Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month
Asthma Awareness Month
Awareness of Medical Orphans Month

Better Hearing & Speech Month Link
Bladder Cancer Awareness Month  Link
Borderline Personality Disorder Month Link
Brain Tumor Awareness Month Link
Building Safety Month Link Link

Observances This Week

Choose Privacy Week: 1-7  Link

National Infant Immunization Week (NIIW): thru 5/4  Link
Air Quality Awareness Week: thru 5/3  Link 
International Coaching Week: thru 5/5 Link
Screen-Free Week (Digital Detox Week) : thru 5/5 Link

Observances for Today

Batman Day
Beltane Link
Childhood Depression Awareness Day 
Executive Coaching Day
Global Love Day Link
Hug Your Cat Day
International Workers Day  Link
Keep Kids Alive! Drive 25 Day
Law Day
Lei Day
Loyalty Day
May Day
May One Day
Mother Goose Day Link 
National Bubba Day
National Chocolate Parfait Day

National Golf Day Link
National Purebred Dog Day Link
National Skilled Trades Day  Link 
New Homeowner's Day
Save the Rhino Day

School Principals' Day
Silver Star Banner Day Link
Skyscraper Day
Stepmother's Day

My Rambling Thoughts

Spring must have really arrived, the HOA grounds keepers are out in force, mowing weeds, blowing away pine needles. There’s lots of pollen in the air and now dust…but I ain’t complaining…it makes the area look so much more welcoming.

Remember when May Day was a big deal with May Day baskets, running around May poles, and happy kids? That all ended very abruptly during the Cold War, when the USSR used May Day as the day to have parades of their military might. I guess kids having fun and dancing and giving away candy or flower baskets was not the image the US wanted.

I guess I haven’t been paying attention to the crisis in Venezuela. I knew they were having a leadership problem. Today I leaned that both Russia and Cuba are backing the one leader and the US is backing another. Guess I better catch up. Their runaway inflation means that 50 Bolivar dollars is worth about 50cents in USD. By the end of May they won’t even be printing anything smaller than 100 Bolivars. The current demonstrations are becoming quite violent.

I saw in interesting story on the news. There is a drug that helps people, especially kids, with epilepsy. In 1992 a vial of the medicine cost $39. Another pharmaceutical company bought it and it now costs $39,000 for a vial. What a shameful thing.

PUZZLE OF THE DAY

Answer at the bottom of this page

An evil warden holds you as a prisoner but offers you a chance to escape. There are 3 doors A, B, and C. Two of the doors lead to freedom and the third door leads to lifetime imprisonment, but you do not which door is what type. You are allowed to point to a door and ask the warden a single yes-no question. If you point to a door that leads to freedom, the warden does answer your question truthfully. But if you point to the door that leads to imprisonment, the warden answers your question randomly, saying either “YES” or “NO” by chance. Can you figure out a way to escape the prison?

Today’s Significant Historical Events

1700’s

1704 Boston Newsletter publishes 1st newspaper advertisement

1753 Publication of Species Plantarum by Linnaeus, and the formal start date of plant taxonomy adopted by the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature

1795 Kamehameha, King of Hawaiʻi defeats Kalanikupule and conquors island of Oʻahu at Battle of Nuʻuanu (approx. date)

1800’s

1867 Howard University chartered

1883 Amsterdam World's Fair opens

1884 Construction begins on Chicago's 1st skyscraper (10 stories)

1900’s

1908 World's most intense shower (2.47" in 3 minutes) at Portobelo, Panama

1927 1st British airliner to serve cooked meals (Imperial Airways)

1928 Lei Day begun (a Hawaiian celebration)

1931 Empire State Building opens in New York City

1937 US President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Neutrality Act, banning travel on belligerent ships and imposes an arms embargo on warring nations

1939 Pulitzer Prize awarded to Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (Yearling)

1941 General Mills introduces CheeriOats (renamed Cheerios in 1945) an oat-based, ready-to-eat cold cereal

1943 Food rationing begins in the United States during World War II

1952 Mr Potato Head introduced

1959 West Germany introduces 5 day work week

1961 Pulitzer prize awarded to Harper Lee for her novel "To Kill a Mockingbird"

1963 1st American (James Whittaker) conquers Mount Everest

1980 Amer Book Award: William Styron (Sophie Choice)/T Wolfe (Right Stuff)

1986 Russian news agency Tass reports Chernobyl nuclear power plant mishap

1989 Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins: US Supreme Court rules employers have legal burden to prove non- discriminatory reasons for not hiring or promoting

1997 Tony Blair elected Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

2000’s

2003 In what becomes known as the "Mission Accomplished" speech, U.S. President George W. Bush declares that "major combat operations in Iraq have ended" on board the USS Abraham Lincoln off the coast of California

2007 Christopher Hitchens publishes his bestseller "God is not Great" making a case against organized religion

2010 Car bomb fails to go off in Times Square, New York City

2014 Hundreds march through Nigerian capital calling for the release of schoolgirls abducted by Islamic militants, Boko Haram, who oppose Western education

2018 Scotland is the first country in the world to introduce a minimum price on alcohol

Birthdays Today

0’s

1738 Kamehameha I,

 (d. 1819: @82±)

King of Hawaii (1782-1819),

born in Kohala, Hawaii

1831 Emily Stowe,

 (d. 1903: @71)

Canadian physician and suffragist

1837 Mother (Mary Harris) Jones,

(d. 1930: @93)

 US reformer and labor organizer

1852 Calamity Jane

[Martha Jane Canary],

 (d. 1903: @51: pneumonia)

American frontierswoman,

born in Princeton, Missouri

1913 Louis Nye,

(d. 2005: @92)

American comedian and actor

(Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Steve Allen Plymouth Show),

born in Hartford, Connecticut

1918 Jack Paar,

(d. 2004: @85),

American television host of the Jack Paar Show

born in Canton, Ohio

1929 Sonny James,

[James Loden],

(d. 2016: @87)

country music singer-songwriter (Young Love), born in Hackelburg, Alabama

1939 Max Robinson,

(d. 1988: @49: AIDS)

1st African American network TV anchor (ABC),

born in Richmond, Virginia

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80- Judy Collins,

singer (Send in the Clowns, Clouds),

born in Seattle, Washington

74- Rita Coolidge,

American Grammy Award winning singer-songwriter

(Higher & Higher, We're All Alone),

born in Nashville, Tennessee

65- Ray Parker Jr,

rock guitarist/vocalist (Ghostbusters),

born in Detroit, Michigan

52- Tim McGraw, American musician and actor, born in Delhi, Louisiana

50- Wes Anderson, American director and writer

Historical Obits Today

80’s

@84-2017 Stan Weston,

American toy licensing agent, had concept for G.I. Joe

@83-1963 Lope K. Santos,

Filipino writer and Father of the Philippine National Language and Grammar

@80-2015 Pete Brown,

American golfer (first African-American to win on PGA Tour, Waco 1964)

70’s

@74-2000 Stephen "Steve" Reeves,

American professional bodybuilder, actor, and philanthropist (Hercules, Goliath, Sandokan),

dies from a blood clot

60’s

@62-1998 Eldridge Cleaver,

American activist

@62-1904 Antonín Dvořák,

Czech composer (Slavic Dancing, New World Symphony),

dies from influenza

@60-1873 David Livingstone,

British physician/explorer (Africa),

dies of malaria

50’s

@53-1965 Spike Jones

 [Lindley Armstrong Jones],

American bandleader (Der Fueher's Face, Cocktails For Two),

dies from emphysema

40’s

@47-1945 Joseph Goebbels,

German Nazi Minister of Propaganda,

commits suicide with his wife (43) and arranges the death of their 6 children, Heidrun (4), Hedwig (6), Holdine (8), Helmut (9), Hildegard (11), and Helga (12)

Puzzle answer:

You can point towards door A and ask whether door B leads to freedom. If the warden says “YES”, then you open door B. It cannot lead to imprisonment because this would mean that door A leads to freedom and the warden must have told you the truth. If the warden says “NO”, then you open door C. This is because either the warden lied, and then the imprisonment door is A, or he told you the truth, and then the imprisonment door is B.