Oct 21

FYI: Any blue text is a link. Click to check it out!

Oct. 20, 2019 Week: 43  Day: 294

86004:   H 63° \ L 27° \ Average Sky Cover: 5% 

Nearest active fire:  87mi.  Nearest lightning:  920mi

Wind:   8mph\Gusts:  13mph  Visibility: 10 mi

Record High: 75°[2003]   Record Low: 5°[1949]

Oct. Averages: 63°\32° ( 4 days with moisture)

Today’s Quote

Writing, to me,

is simply thinking through my fingers.

Isaac Asimov

Random Tidbits

Acronyms

FAO Schwartz stands for Frederick August Otto Schwarz, who founded the toy company with his brothers.

Disney’s EPCOT stands for Experimental Prototype Community Of Tomorrow.

SOS… doesn’t stand for anything! It was chosen as a sign of distress for its unmistakable Morse code representation—three dots, three dashes, three dots.

Observances This Week

17-24

Food & Drug Interactions and Awareness Week

18-24

Apple Butter Stirrin' Week

19-26

INVICTUS Games

20-26

Asexuality Week Link  Link
Freedom From Bullies Week
National Business Women's Week  Link
National Character Counts Week
National Chemistry Week
National Collegiate Alcohol Awareness Week Link 
National Forest Products Week
National Friends of Libraries Week:
National Nuclear Science Week
National Pharmacy Week
National Save For Retirement Week Link 
National School Bus Safety Week
National Teen Drivers Safety Week Link 
National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week Link  
National Massage Therapy Week Link  
National Respiratory Care Week Link 
Pastoral Care Week Link  
Pro Bono Week  Link
Rodent Awareness Week
Spiritual Care Week

21-25

National Health Education Week Link
Medical Assistants Recognition Week Link

21-27

Freedom of Speech Week  Link

Observances for Today

Babbling Day

Celebration of the Mind Day Link
Count Your Buttons Day

Global Iodine Deficiency Disorder (IDD) Prevention Day
Lung Health Day Link  
National Clean Your Virtual Desktop Day 
National Pumpkin Cheesecake Day

Reptile Awareness Day Link
Xterra World Championships

My Rambling Thoughts

It’s a little cool with the breeze outside. I decided it was a good day to rearrange furniture in the living room.  When I moved in here, over a decade ago, I bought an electric fireplace with mantle. The last time I rearranged furniture it ended up in a place where I couldn’t enjoy it as much. As winter is approaching, I put it next to my TV so I can enjoy it all winter long.

The CU Buffalo football team had a really bad day. After half-time, I only watched it during commercials on the channels I was watching. The AZ Cards are looking good today. So this week brought me 1 win and 2 losses.

Yesterday I mentioned that one of our Wal-Mart stores was closed. I live in a medium sized town and news about time is sometimes sketchy. About 4p yesterday I got an alert on my phone about Wal-Mart. It’s an open 24 hrs store. About 3am a fire broke out in the back part of the store, someone was seen running from the store, and now, due to smoke and water damage, the place is closed indefinitely. It’s only been open about 5 years and the city placed very strict guidelines about size and environmental impact. Part of the parking lot is covered to put in the solar panels for the store’s electricity needs and they just put in 5 electric car charging stations…one for each electric car in our town (haha). I don’t shop there very often, but they sure worked hard to get the project approved and I’m sorry to see it in such dire circumstances…not to mention the many employees who are still not sure if they still have jobs.

When I heard about the fire, my old mind immediately went back to Wheat Ridge in the mid-1960’s. There was a big-box store…Spartan…about 10 blocks from our house. One sunny summer day the volunteer fire department siren went off. My Boy Scout Troop leader was the Fire Chief…Ken Hoyt. They were unable to save that building and the lot sat empty except for the cement slab for decades before they built a strip mall. Memories!

Today’s Puzzle

Answer at the bottom of this page

You are a cyclist in a cross-country race.

Just before the crossing finish line, you overtake the person in second place.

In what place did you finish?

Historical Events

335 Roman Emperor Constantine the Great rules that Jews are not allowed to purchase and circumcise Christian slaves

1520 - Ferdinand Magellan discovers a strait now known as Strait of Magellan in South America.

1797 - In Boston Harbor, the 44-gun United States Navy frigate USS Constitution was launched. It was the third such vessel completed for the US Navy.

1854 - Florence Nightingale and a staff of 38 nurses are sent to the Crimean War.

1921 - The Sheik, starring Rudolph Valentino, premiered in Los Angeles

1921 - President Warren G. Harding delivered the first speech by a sitting US President against lynching in the Deep South.

1940 - For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway was published.

1945 Women in France allowed to vote for 1st time

1949 Author of 'Brave New World' Aldous Huxley writes to congratulate George Orwell on his new novel '1984'

1959 -The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, opened in New York City.

1967- #1 Hit: Lulu - To Sir With Love

1971 Nobel Prize for literature awarded to Pablo Neruda

1972 - #1 Hit: Chuck Berry - My Ding-a-ling

1973 - John Paul Getty III's ear was cut off by his kidnappers and sent to a newspaper in Rome, with a note - "This is Paul's ear. If we don't get some money within 10 days, then the other ear will arrive. In other words, he will arrive in little bits."

1976 Nobel Prize for literature awarded to American Saul Bellow

1978 - Frederick Valenteich (flying a Cessna 182 airplane) disappeared over Melbourne, Australia right after describing a UFO to the control tower. The last seventeen seconds of his transmission were described as 'metallic scraping.'

1991 - The Apple PowerBook was released.

1994 - North Korea and the United States signed an agreement that required North Korea stop its nuclear weapons program and agree to inspections. On October 9, 2006, North Korea announced it had successfully conducted its first nuclear test.

2012 Kateri Tekakwitha (Mohawk) canonized as the 1st Native American saint by Pope Benedict XVI

2013 The Parliament of Canada confers Honorary Canadian citizenship on women's rights and education activist Malala Yousafzai

2017 Spanish government suspends Catalonia's autonomy in the face of a deepening political crisis over the region's push for independence

Birthdays Today

Judge Judy Sheindin, TV judge (77)

John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie, jazz trumpet

(d. 1993 @75; pancreatic cancer)

Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Prime Minister (70)

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, English romantic poet

(Rime of Ancient Mariner)

(d. 1834 @61; heart failure)

Alfred Nobel, Swedish chemist,

invented dynamite and founder of Nobel Prize

(d. 1896 @61; stroke)

Carrie Fisher, actor (d. 2016 @60; cardiac arrest)

Kim Kardashian, reality TV (39)

Kane Brown, country singer (26)

Puzzle answer:

Second Place. If you pass the person in second, you take second place, and they become third.