Nov 21

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

Nov. 21, 2019 Week: 47  Day: 325

86004:   H 45° \ L 26° \ Average Sky Cover: 90%

Nearest active fire:  117mi.  Nearest lightning:  219mi

Wind:   3mph\Gusts:  6mph  Visibility: 7 mi

Record High: 70°[1950]   Record Low: -5°[1979]

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

Today’s Quote

“The suppression of uncomfortable ideas

may be common in religion and politics,

but it is not the path to knowledge;

it has no place in the endeavor of science.”

~ Carl Sagan

Random Tidbits

Russia is the largest country by land mass in the world. At 6.5 million square miles (17 million square km), Russia is 1.8 times larger than the United States and is slightly larger than Pluto.

The Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, is comprised of 6 buildings with 3 million exhibits. If you spent 2 minutes at each exhibit, it would take 6 years to see everything. The museum is also home to about 70 cats as part of a decree first instated in 1745 by Empress Elizabeth, daughter of Peter the Great, to protect the priceless displays from rodents.

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

16-22

National Global Entrepreneurship Week  Link

19-26

National Farm-City Week

21-28

International Games Week
Church/State Separation Week
GERD Awareness Week Link
National Bible Week
National Family Week
National Game & Puzzle Week
World Karaoke Championships Link

Observances for Today

Alascattalo Day (About Alaska & humor)
Children's Grief Awareness Day Link
False Confession Day

Family Volunteer Day
Great American Smokeout

Guinness World Record Day Link 
International Games Day (Libraries) Link 
National Adoption Day  Link
National Cranberry Day

 National Gingerbread Cookie Day

National Red Mitten Day (Canada) Link
Playmobil's National Day of Play Link 
Use Less Stuff Day

World Hello Day  Link
World Television Day

My Rambling Thoughts

A day of clouds and rain, with expected snow tonight. Maybe 5”, maybe more, maybe less. That’s the forecast.

I headed to Sam’s to fill up with gas, just in case and to pick up some items. I’m enjoying this cool rainy weather.

I’m having a losing battle with my cable company…Suddenlink. I’m on autopay but in their ‘system migration’ they took my old credit card expiration date. Very long story. Here’s the short version: 4 calls to customer service, one visit to the local store. Finally got the card thing fixed. Each call took over 45 minutes…mostly waiting for the ‘next available agent’. This company has no customer service email address or will give out a physical address for customer service. A decade ago, I had a problem with the previous company, before Suddenlink bought them out. Back then that cable company had a contract with the city of Flagstaff so they could be the sole cable provider to our city. I had to use the city contract person to correct the problem. No such contract now exists. So, the only way to complain is over the phone and they can say a manager will call back, but they never do. Since I have too many trees for a satellite connection, I’m stuck with this crappy system. Some neighbors have roof top dishes, but I talked to a few and when we have snow piled up, there is no TV. Frustrated.

I listened to some of the hearings yesterday and today while I’m on my computer. Interesting if you’re are a student of political science. I’m not that person. I am a voter and understand that a democracy can be messy. I wonder how some of the witnesses ever got government positions, others have been true bureaucrats with lots of notes. This has to be the messiest side of democracy I have ever seen. I hope it ends soon. When and if there is a Senate trial, I’ll get interested again. Until then, it’s all background noise.

Today’s Puzzle

Answer at the bottom of this page

If you carried my burden, you would be crushed.

Though not rich, I leave a trail of silver.

What am I?

Historical Events

164 BC - Judas Maccabeus, son of Mattathias of the Hasmonean family, restored the Temple in Jerusalem. This event is commemorated each year by the festival of Hanukkah.

1783 - Jean Francois Pilatre de Rozier and the Marquis Francois Laurant d'Arlandes became the first men to make a free flight. Their hot-air balloon lifted off from La Muettte, a royal palace in the Bois de Boulogne, Paris. Ben Franklin was among the witnesses.

1832 - Wabash College was founded in Crawfordsville, Indiana.

1846 - The word 'anesthesia' was used by Oliver Wendell Holmes in a letter to William Thomas Green Morton, the surgeon who gave the first public demonstration of the pain-killing effects of ether.

1871 - The patent (#121,049) for a cigar lighter was issued to Moses F. Gale of New York City as an "Improvement in Cigar-Lighters."

1877 - Thomas Edison announced his "talking machine" invention. His phonograph originally recorded sound onto a tinfoil sheet phonograph cylinder. (Patent #200,521, granted in 1878)

1905 - Albert Einstein's paper, Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content?, is published in the journal Annalen der Physik.

1920 - In Dublin, Ireland, 31 people are killed in what became known as Bloody Sunday. This included fourteen British informants, fourteen Irish civilians and three Irish Republican Army prisoners. U2's Sunday Bloody Sunday references the event

1942 - Tweety Bird, aka Tweety Pie, debuted in Tale of Two Kitties. Bob Clampett created the character. Tweety is a boy.

1952 - First US postage stamp (The Red Cross 3 cent) in 2 colors (with the rotary printing process) was introduced.

1953 - #1 Hit: Tony Bennett - Rags To Riches

1953 - Authorities at the British Natural History Museum announced the "Piltdown Man" skull, one of the most famous fossil skulls in the world, was a hoax.

1959 - Jack Benny (violin) & Richard Nixon (piano) play their famed duet.

1959 - DJ Alan Freed, who had popularized the term rock and roll and music of that style, was fired from New York's WABC-AM radio for refusing to deny allegations that he had participated in the payola scandal.

1960 - #1 Hit: Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs - Stay

1964 - World's longest suspension bridge Verrazano Narrows opened (New York City - 4,260 feet). It is still the longest in the western hemisphere.

1967 Vietnam War: American General William Westmoreland tells news reporters: "I am absolutely certain that whereas in 1965 the enemy was winning, today he is certainly losing."

1969 - The first permanent ARPANET (multi computer connection) link was established between UCLA and SRI.

1970 - #1 Hit: The Partridge Family - I Think I Love You

1973 US President Richard Nixon's attorney, J Fred Buzhardt, reveals presence of 18½ minute gap in a White House tape recording related to Watergate

1980 - Everyone asked "Who Shot J.R.?" in last year's Dallas season finale. The season opener of Dallas answered the question people were asking all summer, and well into the fall. Sue Ellen's sister Kristin (played by Mary Crosby) shot J.R..

1980 - A deadly fire brokeout at the MGM Grand Hotel in Paradise, Nevada (now Bally's Las Vegas). Eighty-seven people were killed and more than 650 were injured.

1981 - #1 Hit: Olivia Newton-John - Physical

1987 - #1 Hit: Billy Idol - Mony Mony

1989 - Law banning smoking on most US domestic flights was signed by President George H. W. Bush.

1999 Elian Gonzalez, Cuban boy at the center of a heated 2000 controversy involving the governments of Cuba and the United States, departs from Cuba with his mother

2017 Robert Mugabe's resignation after 37 years in power is read out in Zimbabwe's parliaments during impeachment proceedings

Birthdays Today

@83 – Voltaire, French historian, playwright, and philosopher

(died in 1778)

82 – Marlo Thomas, American actress, producer and activist

@81 – Hetty Green, American businesswoman and financier

('richest miser' died in 1916)

74 – Goldie Hawn, American actress, singer and producer

71 – George Zimmer, American businessman,

founded Men's Wearhouse

68 – René Magritte, Belgian painter (died in 1967)

56 – Nicollette Sheridan, TV actress

54 – Björk, Icelandic Singer/Songwriter

50 – Ken Griffey Jr., American baseball player and actor

48 – Michael Strahan, football player, TV host

34 – Carly Rae Jepsen, Canadian Singer/Songwriter; actress

Puzzle answer:

A snail. They carry their homes on their back, and a house would crush a person (even the tiny houses). And the trail of silver is a bit of a stretch, but it’s the slimy, gooey substance snails leave behind them.