Nov 20

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Nov. 20, 2019 Week: 47  Day: 324

86004:   H 59° \ L 38° \ Average Sky Cover: 60%

Nearest active fire:  27mi.  Nearest lightning:  141mi

Wind:   7mph\Gusts:  11mph  Visibility: 10 mi

Record High: 71°[1976]   Record Low: -5°[1964]

Nov. Averages: 53°\23° (3 days with moisture)

Today’s Quote

“The world is increasingly designed to depress us.

Happiness isn’t very good for the economy.

If we were happy with what we had,

why would we need more?

How do you sell an anti-ageing moisturizer?

You make someone worry about ageing.

How do you get people to vote for a political party?

You make them worry about immigration.

How do you get them to buy insurance?

By making them worry about everything….

To be calm becomes a kind of revolutionary act.

To be happy with your own non-upgraded existence.

To be comfortable with our messy, human selves,

would not be good for business.”

~ Matt Haig

Random Tidbits

While Scotland has the highest proportion (13 percent) of redheads (followed by Ireland with 10 percent), the United States has the largest population of redheads in the world, with between 6-18 million redheads.

Scholars note that redheads have influenced history out of proportion to their numbers. Famous redheads include Roman emperor Nero, Helen of Troy, Cleopatra, Queen Elizabeth I, Napoleon Bonaparte, Oliver Cromwell, Emily Dickinson, Antonio Vivaldi, Thomas Jefferson, Vincent Van Gogh, Mark Twain, James Joyce, Winston Churchill, Galileo, and King David.

Observances This Week

15-21

International Fraud Awareness Week Link   

15-22

International Restorative Justice Week Link 
National Hunger & Homeless Awareness Week  Link 
Random Acts of Kindness Week  Link  Link

16-20

American Education Week Link 

16-22

National Global Entrepreneurship Week  Link

19-26

National Farm-City Week

Observances for Today

Absurdity Day

African Industrialization Day
Beautiful Day

Globally Organized Hug A Runner Day aka G.O.H.A.R.D. Link
Name Your PC Day
National Peanut Butter Fudge Day  Link
Substitute Educators Day  
Transgender Day of Remembrance
Universal Children's Day

My Rambling Thoughts

Over the past few days I put 1850 miles on my vehicle. I was able to visit with former neighbors, friends, and others from Bob’s amazing life. His daughter, Lorie, set up the corporate rate at the brand-new Loveland Marriott. I was in a suite with a king bed, a full kitchen with dishes and utensils for $79/night. Driving 1-25 & I-40 I was able to have an NPR station for the entire trip. The last time I drove that route, there were many dead spots with no radio stations at all. Colorado Public Radio & NM Public radio are doing a fantastic job. And on the way home Sunday I got to listen to the first 3q of the Broncos game. Really nice since that was the time they were winning. Both freeways were having major construction areas on my drive.

As for the service/reception, it was so nice to see so many Focus Travelers and catch up. Lorie and her sister, Lisa, had made an amazing slide show of Bob’s life. And I was able to catch up with neighbors from the old hood. I took a couple of hours and drove around the old haunts. My Jr. High was completely gone and replaced by a new building for my old elementary school. My old elementary school was replaced years ago with a new elementary school, and that is now a magnet Special Needs school for Jeffco. My high school is still standing and has added lots of new buildings. I was disappointed by the changes near my grandfather’s old home. Marycrest Convent, where my grandfather was a groundskeeper with his brother, is much smaller, my grandfather’s house, once part of Marycrest, is now condos. When we were growing up there was a beautiful statue with lots of green grass at the entrance to Marycrest on the corner of Federal & 52^nd. It is now a Starbucks. Surely that is a sacrilege.

It was a very enjoyable, though sad, weekend. I was honored to be one of the pallbearers…and at the burial, the mortuary staff made special mention of honoring the 6 pallbearers for their service to Bob. I thought that was a nice touch also. Two female Air Force officers were there for the military part and Taps was awesome. When Bob, Marge and their family first moved to Wheat Ridge they lived in an apartment building across one of the side streets to the cemetery. The apartment building is still there and is visible from their burial site. Amazing.

There is a light rain here today, which should turn to snow tonight or tomorrow and the weather guy says to expect 3-6” of the white stuff by Thursday.  I’m ready for some snow. Then, according to the weather guy, it will be in the 60’s this weekend. Weather at 7000’ is always interesting.

Today’s Puzzle

Answer at the bottom of this page

I am bought by the yard but worn by the foot.

What am I?

Historical Events

1789 New Jersey is 1st state to ratify Bill of Rights

1866 - US patent (#59,745) for a yoyo, called a "Whirligig" or "Bandalore" in the paperwork, was issued to James L. Haven and Charles Hittrick of Cincinnati, Ohio.

1866 - The US patent (#59,918) on a rotary crank bicycle was issued to Pierre Lallemont of Paris, France.

1888 - Willard LeGrand Bundy was issued the first U.S. patent (#393,205) for a time recording clock. His company went on to help start TCR in 1911, which evolved into IBM.

1906 - Charles Stewart Rolls and Frederick Henry Royce formed Rolls-Royce.

1911 The funeral of Paul and Laura Lafargue (daughter of Karl Marx) in Paris is attended by Lenin; the two socialists died in a suicide pact in the belief that their political usefulness was at an end

1929 Salvador Dali's first one-man show

1929 - First broadcast of The Goldbergs on NBC radio. The original title was 'The Rise of the Goldbergs', until 1936, when it moved to CBS. It was also on television, in various forms from 1949 to 1956. ABC began it's own The Goldbergs on September 24, 2013.

1945 - The Nuremburg Trials with an International Military Tribunal made up of four judges one from each country United States, Soviet Union, Britain and France begin when charges against Germany's Nazi leaders.

1959 - WABC fired Alan Freed over the payola scandal. The early rock and roll DJ died in 1965, and in 2002 his ashes were moved to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio.

1962 - USSR agreed to remove bombers from Cuba, & US lifted the blockade.

1965 - #1 Hit: The Supremes - I Hear A Symphony

1966 - Broadway Show - Cabaret (Musical) opened

1969 - Cleveland, Ohio's The Plain Dealer published explicit photographs of dead villagers from the My Lai Massacre in Vietnam.

1971 - #1 Hit: Isaac Hayes - Theme from Shaft

1973 - A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving aired on CBS for the first time.

1982 - Drew Barrymore, at age 7, hosted Saturday Night Live. She was starring in the hit film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial at that time.

1998 Court in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan declares accused terrorist Osama bin Laden "a man without a sin" in regard to the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania

1999- John Carpenter became the first world-wide winner of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. The $1 million question was, "Which of these U.S. Presidents appeared on the television series 'Laugh-In'?", with the choices being A) Lyndon Johnson, B) Richard Nixon, C) Jimmy Carter, and D) Gerald Ford. He knew the answer and used his lifeline to call his father to tell him that he was winning a million dollars.

2003 - Michael Jackson was booked on suspicion of multiple counts of child molestation, later acquitted on all charges. He was released on $3 million bond.

2010 - #1 Hit: Rihanna featuring Drake - What's My Name?

2013 - Two campus police officers who pepper-sprayed peaceful student protesters at a close range at the University of California were suspended. The memes made the incident immortal.

2014 Nearly 5 million illegal migrants in the US have the threat of deportation deferred, after President Barack Obama announces sweeping immigration changes

2018 Mississippi 15-week abortion ban overturned by US judge saying it violated women's constitutional rights

Birthdays Today

@95 – Alistair Cooke, British-American journalist and author

(died in 2004)

92 – Estelle Parsons, American actress (The Golden Girls)

@92 – Evelyn Keyes, American actress [GWTW]

(died in 2008)

@84 - Chester Gould, American cartoonist,

creator of Dick Tracy

(died in 1985)

77 – Joe Biden, American lawyer and politician,

(47th Vice President of the United States)

@76- – Bob Einstein, American actor, producer and

screenwriter Super Dave Osbourne

(d. 2019; cancer)

72 – Joe Walsh, American Singer/Songwriter, guitarist

[Eagles], producer and actor

@69 – Judy Canova, American actress and comedian

(died in 1983; cancer)

63 – Bo Derek,

(born Mary Cathleen Collins)

American actress and producer

@63 – Edwin Hubble, American astronomer and cosmologist

(died in 1953; stroke)

56 – Ming-Na Wen [(Chinese: 溫明娜; pinyin: Wēn Míngnà],

Chinese-American actress (Mulan, Agents of

S.H.E.I.L.D.)

48 – Joel McHale, American comedian, actor and producer

43–  Dominique Dawes, Olympic gymnast

@42– Robert F. Kennedy, American politician

(assassinated in 1968)

Puzzle answer:

Carpet. Worn is used in the sense of a well-worn item.