Dec 14

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Dec. 14, 2019 Week: 50  Day: 348

86004:   H 58° \ L 35° \ Average Sky Cover: 5%

Nearest lightning:  1599mi

Nearest active fire:  468mi.  

Wind:   3mph\Gusts:  7mph  Visibility: 10 mi

Record High: 66°[1946]   Record Low: -14°[1972]

Dec. Averages: 44°\17° (5 days with moisture)

Today’s Quote

“What is life?

It is the flash of a firefly in the night.

It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime.

It is the little shadow which runs across the grass

and loses itself in the sunset.”

~ Native American Proverb

Random Tidbits

There's only one continent without grasslands

      Antarctica is an amazing place that boasts incredible frosty landscapes, unbelievably low temperatures, and volcanic activity. It's also the "windiest, driest, and iciest place on Earth," according to National Geographic.

Another thing that sets it apart? It's the only continent on Earth that can't naturally support grasslands.

Observances This Week

3-24

Andisop (Meterological Fiddling  Link

10-17

Human Rights Week

14-1/5

Christmas Bird Count Week Link 

Observances for Today

AKC Championships
Day Of The Horse 
Gingerbread Decorating Day
International Shareware Day
Monkey Day Link or Link
National Bouillabaisse Day

National Biscuits and Gravy Day

National Wreaths Across America Day    Link
Roast Chestnuts Day

U.K. National Postal Worker Day

Yoga Day Link

My Rambling Thoughts

Privacy is getting ridiculous in several cases. Today I went to Walgreens to pick up some scripts. I gave the new tech my name and put in the last four of my phone number. Then he asked for my address. I said “6315” since I don’t like giving out my full address when there are lots of people standing around. He said that he needed the full address. I said I don’t give it out in a public setting. He said it was store policy, but would take my full birthdate. I gave that to him. Over the past decade when a new person asks for my address, I give them the 6315 and they are happy. The scripts I was picking up were not narcotic and I have to put the last four digits of my phone & on another screen my full phone number. That should be enough. I don’t think anyone is going to come in and pick up and pay for my scripts that are all for ‘old people’ and are not mood changers.

More privacy ridiculousness: I’m flying to Merida on United. I made the reservation through Expedia, so I wanted to be sure I would get United’s info on the flights so I downloaded the United app. Besides the regular stuff I had to answer 5 different security questions, including my favorite vegetable, my favorite breed of dog, my favorite subject in school, my favorite kind of music, and my favorite vacation destination. All the answers had to picked from a drop-down menu with choices so, for the vacation one I couldn’t put in Focus. Then when I tried to find my flight info I had to put in my password, and answer 2 of the security questions. Then it asked for my conformation. That was GROZEX. It didn’t show up so I had to call them. Turns out the O is a 0. After a good 20 minutes of trying I finally got the flight info on my United account. Crazy.

I hope the Dems are paying attention…the Judiciary Committee vote to impeach was right down party lines…not a good sign. Then, there was a big conservative win in the UK election. Other countries around the world are turning more conservative. The US is probably not far behind.

Today’s Puzzle

Answer at the bottom of this page

How can you physically stand behind your father while he is standing behind you?

Historical Events

1287 - St. Lucia's Flood, Netherlands

1656 - Imitation pearls were first manufactured by a Frenchman, named Jacquin.

1812 The French invasion of Russia, led by Napoleon, officially ends with the French having lost as many as 530,000 people

1819 – Alabama became the 22nd US State.

1852 - Cullen Whipple, of Providence, R.I., patented (# 9477) his "Mechanism for Pointing and Threading Screw-Blanks in the Same Machine." Prior to that screws were generally made with a flat tip. His machine made them pointy.

1900 - Max Planck demonstrated that energy can exhibit characteristics of physical matter, in certain situations, introducing quantum mechanics. Previously, energy was considered a form only in wavelengths.

1902 - The Commercial Pacific Cable Company laid the first Pacific telegraph cable, from San Francisco to Honolulu.

1911 - Norwegian Roald Amundsen became the first explorer to reach the South Pole.

1940 - Plutonium (Pu-238) was first isolated at Berkeley, California.

1959 - #1 Hit: Guy Mitchell - Heartaches by the Number

1964 - In Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States: The Supreme Court of the United States ruled that Congress can use the Constitution's Commerce Clause to fight discrimination.

1968 - #1 Hit: Marvin Gaye - I Heard It Through the Grapevine

1977 - Saturday Night Fever, starring John Travolta, opened in theaters.

1986 - Voyager, the experimental aircraft piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, took off from Edwards Air Force Base in California on the first non-stop, non-refueled flight around the world, in nine days.

2003 President George W. Bush announces the capture of Saddam Hussein.

2008 President George W. Bush make his fourth and final trip to Iraq as president and is almost struck by two shoes thrown at him by Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi during a farewell conference in Baghdad

2012 - Adam Lanza entered the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Connecticut, and shot 26 people, and then himself. 20 children were killed in the attack.

2014 Shinzō Abe and his ruling Liberal Democratic Party win re-election in Japan, retaining their two-thirds majority with coalition partner New Kōmeitō Party

2017 The Vatican announces it has rediscovered the lost last paintings of Raphael in Vatican Museum, painted 1520

2018 Report by Reuters US pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson knew for decades their talc was contaminated with asbestos

Birthdays Today

@87 - Morey Amsterdam, American actor (died in 1996)

@86 - Don Hewitt, American journalist and producer, creator of 60 Minutes

     (died in 2009)

@69 - Patty Duke, American actress

     (died in 2016; sepsis)

@62 – Nostradamus, French astrologer, seer and physician

     (died in 1566)

@62 - Charlie Rich, American singer-songwriter and guitarist

     (died in 1995; pulmonary embolism)

@55 - Lee Remick, American actress

     (died in 1991; kidney cancer)

@53 - Spike Jones, American singer and bandleader (died in 1965; emphysema)

31 - Vanessa Hudgens, American actress

Puzzle answer:

For this kind of super tricky riddle, you might do best to actually map out the physical relationship in your head—if you can! This riddle works by tricking you into thinking about impossibilities.

You are standing back-to-back with your father.