Jan 29

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

Jan 29, 2019 Week: 04  \ Day: 29

86004 Today: H 50° \ L 19° \ Average Sky Cover: 5% 

Wind:   3mph\Gusts:  8mph Visibility: 10 mi

Record High: 63°[1986]   Record Low: -13°[1918]

Jan Averages: 43°\11°

Today’s Quote

Before anything else,

preparation is the key to success.

Alexander Graham Bell

Random Tidbits

Abbreviations

SIM

If you have a cell phone, it most likely uses a SIM card that allows you to connect to the network. But these cards also carry unique information about each cell user, which is why SIM stands for "Subscriber Identity Module." Since the SIM card holds specific information about the user, it provides a way for the network to distinguish individual subscribers.

Stat

When you spill something and yell, "I need some paper towels, stat!", you're speaking Latin, and you may not even realize it! "Stat" is short for statim, the Latin word for "immediately."

Observances This Week

24-2/3

Sundance Film Festival

Catholic Schools Week

Meat Week

National Medical Group Practice Week

Tax Identity Theft Week

US Nationals Snow Sculpting Days

Observances for Today

Curmudgeons Day

Freethinkers Day

Library Shelfie Day   

National Corn Chip Day

National Plan For A Vacation Day

Puzzle Day

Seeing Eye Dog Day

Thomas Paine Day

My Rambling Thoughts

Headed out early for a pedi…it was definitely time for one. My favorite lady was on vacation to LA but my second favorite lady was there. Feels very good…now!

Sen. Kamala Harris gave a very good speech yesterday to announce her run for President. Certainly, a person to watch. Then the Starbucks guy announced he may run as an independent. He has some good ideas, but our country has been burned too many times by a 3^rd party candidate. His run, as an independent, would be a great way to have 45 re-elected.

I had a FB talk with a  relative in Chicago…sure glad I’m not dealing with their cold…and it is only getting colder as the week goes on.

Gathering information for my Trans-Siberian trip. All that’s left if 4 uncut Passport photos. Picky, picky…but it will be a great trip through Russia, Mongolia, and China!

I heard a lady on NPR this morning that reminded us that the government does not operate like a water spicket that can be turned on and off at will. One example—during the shutdown, 5 million pieces of mail were received by the IRS and today is the first day they can open them. I doubt there were any Publisher Clearing House award certificates in that pile.

Today’s Significant Historical Events

1500’s

1595 William Shakespeare's play "Romeo and Juliet" is thought to have been first performed. Officially published early 1597.

1800’s

1802 John Beckley of Virginia appointed first Librarian of Congress

1802 First celebration of Burns night, in honor of poet Robert Burns's birthday by The Mother Club in Greenock (later realized his actual birthday 25th January)

1845 Edgar Allan Poe's poem "Raven" 1st published (NYC)

1860 American College established in Rome by Pope Pius IX

1861 US state of Kansas admitted to the Union as the 34th state

1863 Bear River Massacre: American soldiers slaughter hundreds of Native Americans at the confluence of the Bear River and Beaver Creek in present day Idaho

1879 Custer Battlefield National Monument established in Montana

1886 Karl Benz patents the "Benz Patent-Motorwagen" in Karlsruhe, Germany, the world's 1st automobile with a burning motor

1892 The Coca-Cola Company is incorporated in Atlanta, Georgia

1896 Emile Grubbe is the first doctor to use radiation treatment for breast cancer

1900’s

1904 1st athletic letters given (University of Chicago football team)

1907 Charles Curtis becomes U.S. Senator from Kansas, first Native American to become a Senator

1913 Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, at Howard University, incorporates

1924 Ice cream cone rolling machine patented by Carl Taylor, Cleveland

1929 Seeing Eye Guide Dog organization forms in USA

1978 Sweden outlaws aerosol sprays due to their harmful effect on the ozone layer, becoming the first nation to enact such a ban.

1979 Emerson, Lake & Palmer disband after 10 years together

2000’s

2002 US President George W. Bush in his State of the Union address describes "regimes that sponsor terror" an "Axis of Evil", which includes Iraq, Iran and North Korea

2005 The first direct commercial flights from the mainland China (from Guangzhou) to Taiwan since 1949 arrived in Taipei. Shortly afterwards, a China Airlines carrier landed in Beijing.

2018 F.B.I deputy director Andrew G. McCabe steps down from office

Birthdays Today

1737 Thomas Paine, 

English-American political essayist (Common Sense, Age of Reason), born in Thetford, England (d. 1809)-@72

1754 Moses Cleaveland, 

founder of Cleveland (d. 1806)-52

1820 Harriet Tubman, 

civil rights leader (d. 1913)-@93

1843 William McKinley, 

25th US President (Republican: 1897-1901), born in Niles, Ohio (d. 1901)-@58-assassinated

1860 Anton Chekhov, 

Russian playwright (Cherry Orchard), born in Taganrog, Russia (d. 1904)-@44-TB

1880 W C Fields, 

[William Claude Dukenfield], 

actor (Bank Dick), born in Philadelphia, (d. 1946)-@66- hemorrhage

1908 Adam Clayton Powell, 

(Rep-D-NY, 1945-70) (d. 1972)-@63-prostitiatus

1918 John Forsythe, 

actor (Bachelor Father, Charlie's Angels, Dynasty), born in Penns Grove, New Jersey (d. 2010)-@92

1923 Paddy Chayevsky, [Sydney], 

American dramatist (Marty, Hospital) (d. 1981)@58-cancer

<><><><> 

79- Katharine Ross, 

American actress (Graduate, Francesca-Colbys), born in Hollywood

74- Tom Selleck, 

actor (Lance-Rockford Files, Magnum PI), born in Detroit, Michigan

69- Ann Jillian, actress (Mr Mom, Jennifer Slept Here), born in Cambridge, Massachusetts

65- Oprah Winfrey, 

American TV talk show host and actress (The Oprah Winfrey Show, Color Purple), born in Kosciusko, Mississippi

49- Paul Ryan, 

US politician (R-Wisconsin) and Speaker of the House (2015-2018), born in Janesville, Wisconsin

44- Sara Gilbert, 

American actress (Melissa in Roseanne), born in Santa Monica, California

Historical Obits Today

@88-1963 Robert Frost, 

American poet (New Hampshire, 4 Pulitzers)

@86-1980 Jimmy Durante, 

comedian (Palooka, Jimmy Durante Show)

@81-2015 Rodney "Rod" McKuen, American poet, singer-songwriter and actor (Jean, Alone, Beatsville)

@50-1964 Alan Ladd, 

American actor (Shane, Carpetbaggers), dies from an overdose

@48-1933 Sara Teasdale, 

American poet-suicide

@22-1977 Freddie Prinze, 

comedian and actor (Chico & the Man), shoots himself