Feb 14 ♥♥

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Feb 14♥♥, 2019 Week: 07 \ Day: 45

86004 Today: H 46° \ L 20° \ Average Sky Cover: 85% 

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

Record High: 69°[2007]   Record Low: -4°[1990]

FebAverages: 45°\19°

Today’s Quote

The only way to discover the limits of the possible is

to go beyond them into the impossible.

Arthur C. Clarke

Random Tidbits

The two circular drawings on the reverse of the bill are actually parts of the two-sided Great Seal of the United States. Although we don't see the entire seal outside of our wallets too often, the notion of having a great seal is actually as old as the country itself. The Continental Congress passed a resolution on July 4, 1776, to create a committee to design a great seal for the fledgling nation.

The obverse picturing the eagle is a bit easier to explain. The bird holds 13 arrows to show the nation's strength in war, but it also grasps an olive branch with 13 leaves and 13 olives that symbolize the importance of peace. (The recurring number 13, which also appears in the stripes on the eagle's shield and the constellation of stars over its head, is a nod to the original 13 states.)

Observances This Week

Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Week: 7-14 Link
Have A Heart for A Chained Dog Week: 7-14  Link
Risk Awareness Week: 7-14
National Marriage Week: 7-14  Link  Link
Love Makes the World Go Round; But, Laughter Keeps Us From Getting Dizzy Week: 8-14
Children of Alcoholics Week: 10-16 Link 
International Friendship Week: 10-16 Link
Jell-O Week: 10-16 
National Secondhand Wardrobe Week: 10-16
International Flirting Week: 10-16
Freelance Writer Appreciation Week: 11-15
Love a Mensch Week: 11-17
National Green Week: 11-15 Link
Westminster Dog Show: 11-12
World AG Expo: 12-14
American Assoc. For The Advancement of Science Week: 14-17  Link
National Condom Week: 14-21 Link
National Nestbox Week: 14-21
NCCDP Alzheimer's & Dementia Staff Education Week: 14-21

Observances for Today

Ferris Wheel Day
Frederick Douglass Day  Link

International Book Giving Day Link
League of Women Voters Day
Library Lovers Day

Pet Theft Awareness Day  Link
National Have A Heart Day
National Organ Donor Day
National Women's Heart Day Link
Quirky Alone Day Link
Race Relations Day
Singles Awareness Day or Singles Appreciation Day Link
Valentine's Day
(World) Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Day Link
World Sound Healing Day Link

My Rambling Thoughts

Somehow I left off  the cruise to Tahiti and French Polynesia on the Focus site. It’s up there now and sounds like a great adventure in Mar. 2020. Check it out at the blue link above. There is a nice discount if you register before Mar. 1, 2019.

It’s a nice day, so I headed out early to do some running around. Success came quickly and I’m now home enjoying the cloudy day and awaiting the rain. I ‘was gonna’ get the car washed but decided to see what the upcoming rain does to it.

Mary has developed a horrific cough, and after a week is thinking about considering a visit to the walk-in clinic. Our retirement group lunch is cancelled for tomorrow. I hope she gets to the walk-in clinic.  

The spin on the negotiated spending bill is hilarious. Some seem to be saying that there was divine intervention to get both sides to agree on it while others are suggesting that only the devil incarnate could have done it. Whatever it is, I just hope it prevents another government shutdown, even a partial one.

Today’s Significant Historical Events

1700’s

1778 "Stars & Stripes" arrives in foreign port for 1st time

            (France)

1800’s

1803 Chief Justice John Marshall declares that any act of

            U.S. Congress that conflicts with the Constitution is void

1849 In New York City, James Knox Polk becomes first serving

            US President to have his photograph taken (by

            Matthew Brady).

1859 Oregon admitted as 33rd state of the Union

1872 1st US state bird refuge authorized (Lake Merritt,

            California)

1900’s

1903 US Department of Commerce & Labor forms

1912 Arizona was admitted to the Union as the 48th state

1924 Thomas J. Watson renames the Computing-Tabulating-

            Recording Company (CTR) as International Business

            Machines (IBM)

1929 St Valentine's Day Massacre in Chicago, 7 gangsters

            killed, allegedly on Al Capone's orders

1941 One millionth vehicle traverses the NY Midtown Tunnel

1962 US 1st lady Jacqueline Kennedy conducts White House

            tour on TV

1971 Richard Nixon installs secret taping system in the White

            House

1989 Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini issues a

            fatwa calling for the death of Salman Rushdie and his

            publishers due to his novel "Satanic Verses". A bounty

            was also place on his head.

1990 Perrier recalls 160 million bottles of sparkling water

            after traces of benzene, a carcinogen, are found in

             some

1990 Space probe Voyager 1 takes photograph of entire solar

            system

2000’s

2008 Northern Illinois University shooting: a gunman opened

            fire in a lecture hall of the DeKalb County, Illinois

            university resulting in 24 casualties; 6 fatalities

            (including gunman) and 18 injured.

2013 Oscar Pistorius, a South African amputee sprinter, is

            charged with the murder of Reeva Steenkamp

2018 Ex-student guns down 17 people at Marjory Stoneman

            Douglas High School, Florida, before being captured

Birthdays Today

 1818 Frederick Douglass,

African-American abolitionist, lecturer and editor who was also an

escaped slave (exact birth year unknown), born in Talbot County,

Maryland

(d. 1895-@77)

1864 Robert E. Park, American sociologist (human ecology, marginal

 man), born in Harveyville, Pennsylvania

(d. 1944-@79)

1894 Jack Benny

[Benjamin Kubelski],

American comedian (The Jack Benny Program),

born in Chicago, Illinois

(d. 1974-@80)

1902 Thelma Ritter,

American actress (Miracle on 34th Street),

born in Brooklyn, New York

(d. 1969-@66-heart attack)

1913 Jimmy Hoffa,

Teamsters leader who disappeared in 1975

(@69 when declared dead)

1922 Murray the K [Kaufman],

American disk jockey (5th Beatle), born in NYC, New York

(d. 1982-@60-cancer)

1934 Florence Henderson,

actress and singer (Carol in The Brady Bunch),

born in Dale, Indiana

(d. 2016-@82)

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98- Hugh Downs,

TV journalist (20/20, Concentration), born in Akron, Ohio

77- Michael Bloomberg,

American philanthropist, politician, and CEO of Bloomberg L.P.,

born in Boston, Massachusetts

75- Carl Bernstein,

American investigative reporter who covered Watergate for

the Washington Post, born in Washington, D. C.

59- Meg Tilly,

 Canadian–American actress (Big Chill, Impulse),

born in Los Angeles, California

49- Simon Pegg [Buckingham],

English comedian & actor (Shaun of the Dead,

Mission: Impossible), born in Brockworth, England

Historical Obits Today

@93-1975 P. G. Wodehouse

(Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse),

English-American writer (Bertie Wooster novels)

@86-2012 Dory Previn,

American singer-songwriter

@71-1891 William Tecumseh Sherman,

American Major General in the Union Army,

dies of pneumonia

@50-1779 James Cook,

British explorer, navigator and cartographer,

discovered and explored Australia, Pacific Islands and

New Zealand for Britain,

killed in a fight with Hawaiians near Kealakekua

@48-1831 Vicente Guerrero,

Mexican revolutionary hero, general and 2nd President of

Mexico

executed by firing squad

@43±-270 St. Valentine

marking Valentines Day

(some sources say 269, others 273)

martyred

@6-2003 Dolly the Sheep,

first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell dies young form

a progressive lung disease

(normal life span 10-12 yrs)