May 7

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May 7, 2019 Week: 19 \ Day: 126

86004:   H 71° \ L 33° \ Average Sky Cover: 75% 

Nearest wildfire:  298mi. Nearest lightning:  266mi

Wind:   7mph\Gusts:  18mph

Visibility: 10 mi

Record High: 81°[1989]   Record Low: 15°[1938]

Mar Averages: 68°\34° (3 days with rain)

Today’s Quote

Problems are not the problem;

coping is the problem.

Virginia Satir

Random Tidbits

Monarchs are toxic and in fact, some butterfly species such as the Viceroy play on that feature by mimicking the signature bright orange and black coloring of Monarchs to discourage birds from eating them.

More Observances This Month

National Allergy/Asthma Awareness Month Link
National Barbeque Month
National Better Hearing Month Link
National Bike Month Link
National Chamber Music Month Link
National Egg Month Link  Link
National Electrical Safety Month  Link
National Family Month (5/12 to 6/16)

National Foster Care Month Link
National Good Car Keeping Month
National Hamburger Month  Link  Link
National Hepatitis Awareness Month
National High Blood Pressure Education Month  Link
National Inventors Month Link
Neurofibromatosis Awareness Month (aka NF Month) Link
(World) Lyme Disease Awareness Month Link
National Meditation Month
National Mediterranean Diet Month Link
National Mental Health Month
National Military Appreciation Month Link
National Moving Month
National Pet Month Link  Link
National Osteoporosis Prevention Month
National Photo Month
National Physical Fitness & Sports Month
National Physiotherapy Month Link
National Preservation Month
National Recommitment Month  Link
National Salad Month
National Salsa Month (The Sauce)
National Service Dog Eye Examination Month  Link
National Smile Month  Link
National Syringomyelia Awareness Month  Link  
National Stroke Awareness Month
National Sweet Vidalia Onions Month
National Tuberous Sclerosis Month Link
National Water Safety Month Link
National Vinegar Month
National Youth Traffic Safety Month Link

Observances This Week

Ramadan 5/5-6/4

Children's Book Week: 6-11 
National Pet Week: 6-12 Link  
National Nurses Day and Week: 6-12 Link  Link
National Safety Stand Down Week (Construction Falls): 6-10 Link 
National Wildflower Week: 6-11

PTA Teacher Appreciation Week: 6-10 

Observances for Today

Beaufort Scale (Wind) Day
Cosmopolitan Day (Drink)
Cystinosis Awareness Day
Design Packaging Day  Link
Foster Care Day Link  
National Barrier Awareness Day
National Roast Leg of Lamb Day

National Tourism Day

National Teacher's Day

World Asthma Day Link 
Worldwide Day of Genital Autonomy  Link

My Rambling Thoughts

Our retirement group meets tomorrow to celebrate Cheryl’s birthday. And an added bonus is that Cheryl has an annual pass to Bearizona.  So, we will get to see all the spring babies and new rescues since our last visit.

Last month I got a monthly text message from Verizon saying my bill had been paid thru auto-pay. The text came in at 6:05a on a Saturday morning. I have a tone that sounds for all text messages. After I got up a little later, I texted them back that it was rude to send the message that early. This morning at 6:05a I got this month’s text message. I was awake and listening to NPR and didn’t appreciate the message that early. So, I called Verizon Customer Service. The lady was very nice, understood my dissatisfaction. She asked how long I had been with Verizon. I told her ‘forever’. She laughed and said ‘actually, just since 2003’. Then she added that she really did understand how frustrating it was to get a text message that early. Then she gave me a $30 credit on next months bill. I thanked her, told her how surprised I was. She responded, ‘we want our long-time customers to be happy.’ Nice!

What a surprise, we now have 2 real bullies in the Executive Branch: 45 and the AG. Neither one met the House Judicial Committee order to turn over the unredacted Mueller Report to them. We raise children to stand up to the bully, so this battle will end up in the courts.

I’ll bet that Wal-Mart, Cell Phone makers, computer makers, and those Dollar stores are freaking out as 45 is set to put huge new tariffs on a bunch of Chinese stuff. Time will tell if this strategy will get 45 more votes after prices skyrocket.

PUZZLE OF THE DAY

Answer at the bottom of this page

I left my campsite and hiked south for 3 miles. Then I turned east and hiked for 3 miles. I then turned north and hiked for 3 miles, at which time I came upon a bear inside my tent eating my food! What color was the bear?

Today’s Significant Historical Events

1400’s

1429 English siege of Orleans broken by Joan of Arc and the French army

1600’s

1664 Louis XIV of France inaugurates The Palace of Versailles.

1697 Stockholm's medieval royal castle is destroyed by fire, the Codex Gigas (world's largest extant medieval illuminated manuscript) survives by being thrown out a window

1700’s

1718 The city of New Orleans founded by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville

1789 First US Presidential inaugural ball (for George Washington in NYC)

1800’s

1800 Indiana Territory organized

1846 First printed copies of "Poems" by Emily, Charlotte and Anne Brontë received, published under pseudonym of Acton, Currer and Ellis Bell (2 copies sold)

1847 American Medical Association organizes (Philadelphia)

1895 Russian scientist Alexander Stepanovich Popov demonstrates to the Russian Physical and Chemical Society his invention - the world's first radio receiver in St. Petersberg. Celebrated as Radio Day in Russia.

1900’s

1912 Columbia University approves plans for awarding the Pulitzer Prize in several categories, after established by Joseph Pulitzer

1914 US Congress establishes mother's day

1934 World's largest pearl (6.4 kg) found at Palawan, Philippines

1946 Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering (later renamed Sony) is founded with around 20 employees

1960 USSR announces Francis Gary Powers confesses to being a CIA spy

1962 Pulitzer prize awarded to Theodore H. White (Making of President 1960)

1973 Pulitzer prize awarded to Eudora Welty (Optimist's Daughter)

1975 US President Gerald Ford declares an end to "Vietnam Era"

1984 $180m out-of-court settlement reached in Agent Orange suit

1994 Edvard Munch's painting "The Scream" is recovered 3 months after it was stolen

1998 Mercedes-Benz buys Chrysler for $US40 billion and forms DaimlerChrysler in the then largest industrial merger in history

1999 Pope John Paul II travels to Romania becoming the first pope to visit a predominantly Eastern Orthodox country since the Great Schism in 1054.

1999 Jury finds "The Jenny Jones Show" and Warner Bros. liable in death of Scott Amedure, after purposely deceiving Jonathan Schmitz to appear on a same-sex crush episode. Schmitz later kills Amedure, jury awards Amedure's family $25 million

2000’s

2007 Ehud Netzer of Hebrew University announces he has discovered the tomb of Herod the Great at Herodium, West Bank

2013 Delaware becomes the 11th US State to legalize same-sex marriage

2018 Global tourism accounts for 8% of the world's carbon emissions according to a University of Sydney study

Birthdays Today

1748 Olympe de Gouges [Marie Gouze],

(d. 1793: @45: executed)

French playwright and revolutionary (Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen),

born in Montauban, France

1812 Robert Browning,

(d. 1889: @77)

English poet (Pied Piper),

born in London, England

1840 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky,

 (d. 1893: @53: cholera)

Russian composer of the late-Romantic period

 (1812 Overture, Swan Lake),

born in Votkinsk, Russia

1861 Rabindranath Tagore,

(d. 1941: @80)

 Indian philosopher, poet, writer (Nobel Prize for Literature 1913),

born in Calcutta, British India

1885 George "Gabby" Hayes,

(d. 1969: @83)

American actor (In Old Santa Fe, El Paso),

born in Wellesvile, New York

1901 Gary Cooper,

(d. 1961: @60: cancer)

American actor (Sgt York, High Noon),

born in Helena, Montana

1909 Edwin Land,

(d. 1991: @81)

American inventor of instant photography and co-founder of the Polaroid Corporation,

born in Bridgeport, Connecticut

1919 Eva Perón [Evita],

(d. 1952: @33: cervical cancer)

Argentine First Lady (1946-52) actress, suffragette, unionist and humanitarian who was inspiration for A.L. Webber's musical "Evita",

born in Los Toldos, Argentina

1923 Anne Baxter,

(d. 1985: @62: stroke)

American actress, and singer (The Razor's Edge, All About Eve),

 born in Michigan City, Indiana

1923 Pete Domenici,

(d. 2017: @85)

American politician, U.S. Senator from New Mexico (1973-2009),

born in Albuquerque, New Mexico

1930 Totie Fields

[Sophie Feldman],

(d. 1978: @48: blod clot)

American comedienne,

born in Hartford, Connecticut

1931 Teresa Brewer,

 (d. 2007: @76: PSP)

American pop and jazz singer (Put Another Nickel In),

born in Toledo, Ohio

1950 Tim Russert,

 (d. 2008: 58: coronary disease)

American television journalist and host of NBC's Meet the Press,

 born in Buffalo, New York

1951 Robert Hegyes,

(d. 2012: @60: heart attack)

American actor (Underground Aces, Welcome Back Kotter),

born in Perth Amboy, New Jersey

Historical Obits Today

80’s

@81-1890 James Nasmyth,

Scottish Engineer and Inventor of the steam hammer

50’s

@56-1998 Eddie Rabbitt,

American country singer (I Love a Rainy Night),

dies from lung cancer

Puzzle answer:

White. The only place you can hike 3 miles south, then east for 3 miles, then north for 3 miles and end up back at your starting point is the North Pole. Polar bears are the only bears that live at the North Pole, and they are white.