Jul 24

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Jul. 24, 2019 Week: 30 \ Day: 205
86004:   H 80° \ L 56° \ Average Sky Cover: smoky 

Nearest wildfire:  4mi. Nearest lightning:  95mi
Wind:   6mph\Gusts:  6mph
Visibility: 10 mi

Record High: 91°[1937]   Record Low: 39°[1995]
Jul Averages: 82°\542° (8 day with rain)

Today’s Quote

Consistency is the last refuge
of the unimaginative.
Oscar Wilde

Random Tidbits

Humans spend a third of their life sleeping (25 years or more). In fact, humans can survive longer without food than they can without sleep.

When applied patiently and systematically, sleep deprivation is said to be the single most effective form of coercion and torture.

Observances This Week
6-28
Tour de France

18-25
Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS) Education & Awareness Week

20-24
National Scrabble Week Link

20-28
National Moth Week Link

21-27
Captive Nations Week
International Lace Week  Link
National Independent Retailers Week Link 
National Zoo Keeper Week Link
RAGBRAI

Observances for Today

Amelia Earhart Day
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Pioneer Day Link
Cousins Day
International Self Care Day  Link
National Drive-Thru Day
National Tequila Day
National Thermal Engineers Day  Link 
 Tell an Old Joke Day


My Rambling Thoughts

Life looks much better today. The fire is still uncontrolled, but the smoke is much less than yesterday. Thank goodness I have a CPAP machine…it cleaned the air it was forcing down my throat. There is a huge DC-10 tanker, several smaller planes, and 3 helicopters dropping retardant/water on the fire. There are over 200 fire fighters on the line. The fire is now about 2000 acres of dry brush, pinon and ponderosa pine. No injuries, no structural loss. Still no official info on how the fire started Sunday. Monsoon may start in the higher mountain today…and come to town tomorrow. Sure hope so. Yesterday was frustrating, today I’m just POed at the fire, and thankful for the people helping put it out. Donated a case of Gatorade from Sam’s and a big box of protein bars to the crew.

I’m not expecting anything from the Mueller testimony tomorrow, but I’ll be listening.

Today’s Puzzle
Answer at the bottom of this page

I'm a word that's hardly there.
Take away my start, and I'm an herbal flair.
What am I?

Today’s Highlighted Historical Events
1400’s
1411 Battle of Harlaw, one of the bloodiest battles in Scotland, takes place

1500’s
1534 Jacques Cartier lands in Canada, claims it for France

1700’s
1701 Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac founds trading post at Fort Pontchartrain, later becomes the city of Detroit

1800’s
1824 Harrisburg Pennsylvanian newspaper publishes results of 1st public opinion poll, with a clear lead for Andrew Jackson

1832 Benjamin Bonneville leads the first wagon train across the Rocky Mountains by Wyoming's South Pass

1847 Brigham Young and his Mormon followers arrive at Salt Lake City, Utah

1866 Tennessee becomes 1st Confederate state readmitted to Union

1880 1st commercial hydroelectric power plant in the world begins generating electricity in Grand Rapids, Michigan

1900’s
1901 O. Henry is released from prison in Austin, Texas after serving three years for embezzlement from a bank

1911 American explorer Hiram Bingham discovers Machu Picchu, the Lost City of the Incas

1917 Trial of Dutch exotic dancer Mata Hari begins in Paris for allegedly spying for Germany and thus causing the deaths of 50,000 soldiers

1959 US Vice President Richard Nixon argues with Nikita Khrushchev, known as "Kitchen Debate"

1961 Beginning of a trend, a US commercial plane is hijacked to Cuba

1967 First modern hospice St Christopher's founded by Dr. Cicely Saunders in London, England, beginning of modern palliative care and the hospice movement

1969 Apollo 11 returns to Earth

1985 French DGSE officers Dominique Prieur and Alain Mafart are arrested and charged with murder over the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior

1998 Russell Eugene Weston Jr. bursts into the United States Capitol and opens fire killing two police officers. He is later ruled to be incompetent to stand trial.

2000’s
2015 US President Barack Obama begins an historic 2 day visit to Kenya

2018 Wildfires near Athens, Greece, kill 91 with 104 injured, over 600 rescued from the coast by boats

2018 First bison born in Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada, in 140 years, after being reintroduced

Highlighted Birthdays Today

1783 Simón Bolívar,
Venezuelan political and military leader (freed 6 Latin American republics from Spanish rule), born in Caracas (d. 1830: @47: TB)

1802 Alexandre Dumas,
French author (The Three Musketeers, The Count of Monte Cristo), born in Aisne, France (d. 1870: @68)

1892 Alice Ball,
African American chemist (developed treatment for leprosy), born in Seattle Washington (d. 1916: @24: TB)

1897 Amelia Earhart,
American aviator (1st woman to fly solo across the Atlantic), born in Atchison, Kansas (d. 1939: @41: lost)

1899 Chief Dan George
[Tes-wah-no],
Canadian Indian author, poet and actor (Harry & Tonto, Little Big Man, Smith!), born in Vancouver, British Columbia (d. 1981: @82)

80’s
83- Ruth Buzzi,
comedienne (Laugh-In, Margie-That Girl)

70’s
72- Robert Hays,
actor (Airplane!, Starman, Scandalous), born in Bethesda, Maryland

60’s
68- Lynda Carter,
American actress (Wonder Woman, Sky High) and Miss USA (1973), born in Phoenix, Arizona

50’s
54- Barry Bonds,
Baseball player

50- Jennifer Lopez,
actress and pop singer (Selena), born in The Bronx

40’s
43- Rashida Tlaib,
American politician (Rep-D-Michigan 2018-), one of the first Muslim women elected to US House, born in Detroit, Michigan

30’s
37- Anna Paquin,
Canadian-born New Zealand Oscar-winning actress (The Piano, True Blood), born in Winnipeg, Manitoba

37- Elisabeth Moss,
American actress (Mad Men), born in Los Angeles, California

20’s
21- Bindi Irwin,
zoologist, performer

Highlighted Historical Obits Today
90’s
@91-1997 William J. Brennan, Jr.
American Supreme Court judge (1956-90)

80’s
@82-1974 James Chadwick,
English physicist (Nobel 1935, discovered neutron)

70’s
@79-1862 Martin Van Buren,
8th US President (1837-41), dies of heart failure

@75-2012 Chad Everett
[Raymon Lee Cramton],
American actor (Medical Center, Airplane II), dies from lung cancer

@74-2012 Sherman Hemsley,
American Actor, dies from natural causes

50’s
@54-1980 Peter Sellers,
English actor and comedian (The Goon Show, Pink Panther), dies after heart attack

Puzzle answer:

Sparsley (No S = Parsley)