Jun 7

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Jun. 8, 2019 Week: 22 \ Day: 159

86004:   H 72° \ L 42° \ Average Sky Cover: 10% 

Nearest wildfire:  6mi. Nearest lightning:  333mi

Wind:   8mph\Gusts:  16mph

Visibility: 10 mi

Record High: 91°[2013]   Record Low: 24°[1950]

Jun Averages: 78°\42° (1 day with rain)

Today’s Quote

Well done is better than well said.

Benjamin Franklin

Random Tidbits

Despite its name, German Chocolate Cake is actually American. The cake got its name from its creator Sam German. It was originally called 'Baker's German's Sweet Chocolate' but the name was shortened as the years passed.

The hard shell taco is not a Mexican invention. This is a north of the border food made popular by Taco Bell.

Observances This Week

International Clothesline Week: 1-8 
National Lemonade Days: 1-9 Link

Bed Bug Awareness Week: 2-8
Black Single Parents Week: 2-8 
Community Health Improvement Week (CHI): 2-8  Link
End Mountain Top Removal Week:  2-8  Link 
National Business Etiquette Week:  2-8 
National Headache Awareness Week: 2-8  Link 
National Sun Safety Week: 2-8  Link
Pet Appreciation Week: 2-8  Link

Hemp History Week: 3-9  Link

Great American Brass Band Week: 6-9  Link
Superman Days: 6-9  Link

Observances for Today

Banana Split Days: Thru 8  Link

World Oceans Day Link
Belmont Stakes Link
Best Friends Day

Companies That Care Day Link
Family Fitness and Health Day  
Ghostbusters Day  Link
International Young Eagles Day
Missing Mutts Awareness Day Link  
Name Your Poison Day

National Caribbean American HIV/AIDS Awareness Day Link
National Jelly-Filled Doughnut Day

National Marina Day
National Rose' (wine) Day Link
Queen's Official Birthday  Link  
Shavout (Sundown)
Upsy Daisy Day
World Bike Naked Day Link  Link 
Worldwide Knit (and Crotchet) in Public Day  Link
World Gin Day Link

World Ocean Day

My Rambling Thoughts

Visitors left this morning. Nice visit, good conversation.

This appears to be a very fertile spring. After washing my ride last weekend, it has been covered with yellow pollen all week. This morning, as I was heading out for late breakfast with my visitors, I had to use the window washer to see through the pollen. After a nice breakfast, I stopped at El Cheapo Car Wash--$5—for a quick wash. I’ve lived here and parked here for over a decade, and never has there been just much pollen on my ride. Thanks Male Pinecones for changing the color of my car.

Looking for an amazing trip? For $50 million + $35K/night 2 citizens a year can travel to the International Space Station. The citizen still must complete the usual Astronaut training program. Guess I’ll double check with my bank to see if this is a good idea.

PUZZLE OF THE DAY

Answer at the bottom of this page

There is a common 9-letter word in the English language, such that if you keep removing its letters one by one, the resulting 8 words are still valid. What is this word?

Remark: The removed letters do not need to be from the beginning or the end of the word.

Today’s Significant Historical Events

1700’s

1783 Laki volcano in southern Iceland begins 8-month eruption, killing 10,000 and causing widespread famines throughout Asia and Europe

1786 Commercially made icecream 1st advertised (Mr Hall, NYC)

1789 James Madison introduces a proposed Bill of Rights in the US House of Representatives

1800’s

1824 Washing machine patented by Noah Cushing of Quebec

1869 Ives W. McGaffey of Chicago patents the 1st vacuum cleaner, calls it a "sweeping machine"

1880 Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky delivers an emotional speech at the unveiling of a monument to Pushkin in Moscow

1900’s

1905 US President Theodore Roosevelt sends identical notes to Japan and Russia urging them to negotiate and end hostilities, offering his personal services

1937 World's largest flower blooms in NY Botanical Garden, 12' calla lily

1938 Gert Terblanche, a local school boy, discovers fossils of an unknown 'robust-type' human ancestor, later named Paranthropus robustus by Robert Broom, at Kromdraai, Blaauwbank River Valley in South Africa

1949 Siam changes name to Thailand

1956 Richard B. Fitzgibbon, Jr. killed by another USAF airman in Vietnam, becoming the first American killed in the Vietnam War

1968 James Earl Ray, alleged assassin of Martin Luther King Jr., captured

1968 The body of assassinated U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy is laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery

1969 Nixon says 25,000 US troops would leave Vietnam by end of August

1986 Alleged Nazi Kurt Waldheim elected President of Austria

1988 Nippon Airways announces that painting eyeballs on Jets cut bird collisions by 20%

2000’s

2017 Ex-FBI chief James Comey testifies to a US Senate committee that US President Donald Trump told "lies plain and simple"

2018 IMF agrees to lend Argentina up to 50 billion dollars

2018 World's most powerful supercomputer, Summit, can process 200,000 trillion calculations per second, launched at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tennessee, by IBM and NVidia

Birthdays Today

1625 Giovanni Domenico Cassini,

(d. 1712: @87)

Italian-French mathematician, astronomer and engineer who discovered four of Saturn's moons,

born in Perinaldo, Republic of Genova

1867 Frank Lloyd Wright,

(d. 1959: @91)

American architect (Guggenheim) recognized as "the greatest American architect of all time",

born in Richland Center, Wisconsin

1917 Byron White,

(d. 2002: @84)

Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (1962-93),

born in Fort Collins, Colorado

1918 Robert Preston [Meservey],

(d. 1987: @68: lung cancer)

American actor (Music Man, Mame, Last Starfighter),

born in Newton, Massachusetts

1925 Barbara Bush,

(d. 2018: @92)

First Lady of the US (1989-93) and wife of George H. W. Bush,

born in NYC, New York

1933 Joan Rivers,

(d. 2014: @81)

American comedian and actress (Late Show, Hollywood Squares),

born in Brooklyn, New York

90’s

92- Jerry Stiller,

American comedian (Frank Constanza-Seinfeld),

born in Brooklyn, New York

70’s

79- Nancy Sinatra,

American singer (Boots are Made for Walkin') and

daughter of Frank Sinatra,

born in Jersey City, New Jersey

77- Chuck Negron,

American singer-songwriter (3 Dog Night-Joy to the World),

born in The Bronx, New York

76- William Calley Jr.,

American war criminal, convicted by court-martial of murdering 22 unarmed South Vietnamese civilians in the My Lai Massacre,

born in Miami, Florida

75- Boz Scaggs

[William Royce],

American rocker (Steve Miller Band),

born in Dallas, Texas

60’s

68- Bonnie Tyler

[Gaynor Hopkins],

Welsh rocker (Total Eclipse of the Heart),

born in Skewen, Neath, Wales

64- Tim Berners-Lee,

English inventor (World Wide Web),

born in London, England

61- Keenan Ivory Wayans,

American comedian (In Living Color),

born in NYC, New York

50’s

53- Julianna Margulies,

American actress (ER, The Good Wife),

born in Spring Valley NY

40’s

42- Kanye West,

American rapper and record producer,

born in Atlanta, Georgia

41- Maria Menounos,

American actress, TV star (Today, Access Hollywood, WWE) and

1996 Miss Massachusetts Teen USA,

born in Medford, Massachusetts

Historical Obits Today

70’s

@78-1845 Andrew Jackson,

American soldier and statesman (D) seventh US President (1828-37)

@75-1982 Satchel Paige,

American Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher

(5-time Negro League, 2-time MLB All Star),

dies of a heart attack

@72-1809 Thomas Paine,

English American writer (Age of Reason, Common Sense)

@70±-1874 Cochise

[Shi-ka-She or A-da-tli-chi - "having the quality of strength of an oak″],

Mescalero Apache leader

@70±-1871 Sitting Bear

[Satank],

Kiowa chief, shot to death

60’s

@62-632 Mohammad,

Arabic prophet and founder of Islam (Quran),

dies of suspected fever (approximate date)

@62-1859 Walter Hunt,

American inventor (safety pin, sewing machine)

@61-2018 Anthony Bourdain,

American-French celebrity chef, author, and TV personality considered one of the most influential chefs in the world (No Reservations, Parts Unknown),

commits suicide by hanging

50’s

@57-1969 Robert Taylor,

American actor (Waterloo Bridge, Quo Vadis, Death Valley Days),

dies of lung cancer

30’s

@37-1924 George Mallory,

English mountain climber ("because it is there"),

dies in a climbing accident

Puzzle answer:

The word is STARTLING -> STARTING -> STARING -> STRING -> STING -> SING -> SIN -> IN -> I.