May 5

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May 5, 2019 Week: 19 \ Day: 125

86004:   H 72° \ L 34° \ Average Sky Cover: 20% 

Nearest wildfire:  74mi. Nearest lightning:  488mi

Wind:   9mph\Gusts:  13mph

Visibility: 10 mi

Record High: 86°[1947]   Record Low: 10°[1950]

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

Today’s Quote

Your own mind is a sacred enclosure into which nothing harmful

 can enter except by your permission.

Arnold Bennett

Random Tidbits

Butterflies are a long-standing part of the earth's environmental fabric, with butterfly fossils dating back as far as 40-50 million years ago.

Butterflies are sensitive to pesticides and habitat loss, both of which have been driving a decline in butterfly populations. Some of the most successful butterflies eat agricultural products that man has modified.

More Observances This Month

Gardening for Wildlife Month
Get Caught Reading Month
Gifts From The Garden Month
Global Civility Awareness Month
Global Health and Fitness Month Link
Go Fetch! Food Drive for Homeless Animals Month 
Haitian Heritage Month
Heal the Children Month
Healthy Vision Month
Home Schooling Awareness Month
Huntington's Disease Awareness Month

Observances This Week

International Coaching Week: thru 5/5 Link
Screen-Free Week (Digital Detox Week) : thru 5/5 Link

Choose Privacy Week: 1-7  Link
(World) Dystonia Awareness Week: 3-11 Link
Toad Suck Daze: 4-5
Be Kind To Animals Week: 5-11
Dating and Life Coach Recognition Week: 5-11 Link 
Drinking Water Week: 5-11 Link 
Flexible Work Arrangement Week: 5-11
Goodwill Industries Week: 5-11 
Hurricane Preparedness Week: 5-11  Link
International Clitoris Awareness Week: 5-11   
National Alcohol & Drug Related Birth Defects Awareness Week: 5-11
National Anxiety & Depression Awareness Week: 5-11
National Correctional Officer's Week:5-11 
National Family Week: 5-11   
National Hug Holiday Week: 5-11
National Raisin Week: 5-11 Link
National Root Canal Appreciation Week: 5-11  Link
National Tourism Week: 5-11 Link  
National Wildflower Week: 5-11 
North American Occupational Safety & Health Week: 5-11 Link
Public Service Recognition Week: 5-11 Link
Root Canal Awareness Week: 5-11
National Small Business Week: 5-11 Link
Teacher Appreciation Week: 5-11 Link 
Update Your References Week: 5-11 

Observances for Today

Cartoonists Day
Childhood Stroke Awareness Day Link
Cinco de Mayo
International Bereaved Mothers' Day  Link
International Day of The Midwife Link
International Roller Derby Day 
Lemonade Day  Link 
Motorcycle Mass & Blessing of The Bikes Day 
National Astronaut Day Link
National Enchilada Day

National Infertility Survival Day 
Oyster Day

Ramadan - begins at sundown

Revenge of the Fifth  Link
Rural Life Sunday
Silence The Shame Day  Link
Totally Chipotle Day
World Laughter Day Link  

My Rambling Thoughts

Happy Cinco de Mayo. Cinco de Mayo (pronounced [ˈsiŋko ðe ˈmaʝo] in Latin America, Spanish for "Fifth of May") is an annual celebration held on May 5. The date is observed to commemorate the Mexican Army's victory over the French Empire at the Battle of Puebla, on May 5, 1862, under the leadership of General Ignacio Zaragoza. The victory of the smaller Mexican force against a larger French force was a boost to morale for the Mexicans. A year after the battle, a larger French force defeated Zaragoza at the Second Battle of Puebla, and Mexico City soon fell to the invaders.

In the United States, Cinco de Mayo has taken on a significance beyond that in Mexico. More popularly celebrated in the United States than Mexico, the date has become associated with the celebration of Mexican-American culture. These celebrations began in California, where they have been observed annually since 1863. The day gained nationwide popularity in the 1980s thanks to advertising campaigns by beer and wine companies. Today, Cinco de Mayo generates beer sales on par with the Super Bowl.

It’s a beautiful day and I should be outside, but house cleaning is taking precedence over all else.

I am sick of wondering when 45’s comments will be in line with HIS security personnel. It is getting disturbing that 45 believes Putin over his own people. The Venezuelan incident is just one more example of total ignorance.

PUZZLE OF THE DAY

Answer at the bottom of this page

King Arthur and his eleven honorable knights must sit on a round-table. In how many ways can you arrange the group, if no honorable knight can sit between two older honorable knights?

Today’s Significant Historical Events

1200’s

1260 Kublai Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan, becomes ruler of the Mongol Empire

1800’s

1809 Mary Kies is 1st woman issued a US patent for weaving straw

1847 American Medical Association organized (Philadelphia)

1862 French army intervenes in Puebla, Mexico: Cinco de Mayo

1877 Indian Wars: Sitting Bull leads his band of Lakota into Canada to avoid harassment by the United States Army under Colonel Nelson Miles

1893 Panic of 1893 causes a large crash on the NY Stock Exchange

1900’s

1912 Soviet Communist Party newspaper Pravda begins publishing (4/22 OS)

1920 US President Woodrow Wilson makes Communist Labor Party illegal

1920 Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti are arrested on charges and robbery of a paymaster at a shoe factory in Massachusetts, US - the two men will executed

1925 John T. Scopes arrested for teaching evolution in Tennessee

1925 Afrikaans is established as an official language in South Africa.

1926 Sinclair Lewis refuses his Pulitzer Prize for "Arrowsmith"

1930 Amy Johnson takes off - first woman to fly solo from England to Australia

1936 Italian troops occupy Addis Ababa

1941 First modern perfume Chanel No. 5 released by fashion designer Coco Chanel

1944 Mahatma Gandhi freed from prison

1947 Pulitzer prize awarded to Robert Penn Warren (All the King's Men)

1952 Pulitzer prize awarded to Herman Wouk (Caine Mutiny)

1961 Alan Shepard becomes 1st American in space (aboard Freedom 7)

1969 Pulitzer prize awarded to Norman Mailer (Armies of the Night)

1981 After 66 days on hunger strike, 26 year old Provisional IRA member and British MP Bobby Sands dies in the Maze Prision. Nine more hunger strikers die in the next 3 months.

2000’s

2014 China announces it will upgrade Ethiopia's infrastructure in an effort to improve a China-Africa strategic partnership

2016 Fort McMurray wildfires: Canadian province of Alberta declares a state of emergency as evacuation of 80,000 people continues

Birthdays Today

1813 Søren Kierkegaard,

 (d. 1855: @42: possible TB)

Danish philosopher,

born in Copenhagen, Denmark

1818 Karl Marx,

(d. 1883: @64: pleurisy)

German philosopher (Communist Manifesto, Das Kapital),

born in Trier, Prussia

1830 John Batterson Stetson,

 (d. 1906: @75)

American hat manufacturer,

 born in Orange, New Jersey

1865 Nellie Bly

[Elizabeth Cochran Seaman],

(d. 1922: @57: pneumonia)

American journalist and writer (Ten Days in a Mad House),

born in Cochran’s Mills, Pennsylvania

1903 James Beard,

(d. 1985: @81)

American culinary expert and author (Delights & Prejudices),

born in Portland, Oregon

1926 Ann B Davis,

(d. 2014: @88)

American actress (Bob Cummings Show, Alice-Brady Bunch),

born in Schenectady NY,

1942 Tammy Wynette

[Virginia Pugh],

(d. 1998: @55: blood clot)

American country singer (Stand by your Man),

born in Itawamba County, Mississippi

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90’s

92- Patricia "Pat" Carroll,

American comedienne and actress

(Ursula- The Little Mermaid, Make Room for Daddy),

born in Shreveport, Louisiana

70’s

75- Michael Palin,

English comedian (Monty Python, Fish Called Wanda),

born in Sheffield, Yorkshire

30’s

31- Adele

[Adele Laurie Blue Adkins], E

nglish singer (Rolling in the Deep, Someone Like You),

born in Tottenham, London

Historical Obits Today

1945 Elsie Mitchell and five Sunday school students become the only people to die during World War II on US soil when they are killed by a Japanese fire balloon that lands in the forest of Gearhart Mountain, near Bly, Southern Oregon

80’s

@85-2000 Gino Bartali,

Italian cyclist (Tour de France 1938)

50’s

@51-1821 Napoleon Bonaparte,

French military leader and Emperor of the French (1804-14, 1815),

dies in exile on the island of Saint Helena, officially from stomach cancer but rumors of arsenic poisoning persist

20’s

@26-1981 Bobby Sands,

Irish IRA activist dies in the 66th day of his hunger strike

Puzzle answer:

The answer is 1024 ways, up to rotation around the table. To see this, notice that the youngest honorable knight must sit right next to King Arthur – there are two possible places for him. Then, the second youngest knight must sit right next to this group of two. Once again, there are two possible places for him. Continuing like this, we see that for all honorable knights, except for the oldest one, there are two possible spots on the table. Multiplying two to the power of ten out, we get 1024.