Jul 23

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Jul 23, 2020 Week: 30 Day: 205

86004:   H 77° \ L 54° \ Average Sky Cover: 75%

Wind:   5mph\Gusts:  4mph  Visibility:  10mi

Nearest lightning:  12mi.; Nearest active fire:  67mi. 

Extreme Risk of Fire          

Record High: 92°[1996]   Record Low: 37°[1987]

Jul Averages: 82°\52° (8 days with rain)

 

Today’s  Quote

"You only live once,

but if you do it right,

once is enough."

-Mae West

 

Random Tidbits

Approximately 25 gallons of water are needed to produce 1 pound of wheat. Around 2,500 gallons of water are needed to produce 1 pound of meat. Many vegetarians argue that more people eating a meat-free diet would lower the strain that meat production puts on the environment.

Some scientists consider the Earth to have entered a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene; an age where human activity causes more changes to the Earth's ecosystems than natural forces.

China's ridiculously fast industrialization and population growth required massive amounts of water. As a result, 28,000 of the country's 50,000 rivers have dried up over the last 30 years.

 

Remember these movie quotes?

#5           "Here's looking at you, kid."

Humphrey Bogart          Casablanca  1942

 

Observations This Week

National Scrabble Week: 18-25  Link Cancelled due to COVID-19
National Moth Week: 18-26 Link
Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS) Education & Awareness Week: 18-25
Captive Nations Week: 19-25 
Everybody Deserves A Massage Week: 19-25 Link 
National Independent Retailers Week: 19-25 Link  
National Zoo Keeper Week:19-25 Link  Cancelled due to COVID-19
RAGBRAI: 19-25
Women in Baseball Week: 19-25 
International Lace Week: 20-24  Link  Cancelled due to COVID-19
National Baby Food Week: 22-25  Link Cancelled due to COVID-19
Comi Great Texas Mosquitos Days: 23-25  Link  Cancelled due to COVID-19
Comic Con International: 23-26 Cancelled due to COVID-19 To be virtual

 

Observations for Today

Gorgeous Grandma Day 
Hot Enough For Ya Day
National Intern Day  Link  
National Refreshment Day  Link 

National Vanilla Ice Cream Day

Sprinkle Day

Yada, Yada, Yada Day

 

My Rambling Thoughts

Today would have been my dad’s 106^th birthday. He was raised by a single mom with his older sister after his father died on Christmas Eve when he was 5. He dropped out of high school, joined the Navy, served for 2 years then returned and finished high school where he met my mother. They were married after her graduation. He was drafted into the Army during WWII. He helped with clean up in France. He returned from the war, attended accounting school, worked for Armour & Co. as an accountant. He always helped out his sister and her family, his mom, who lived with us for several years, adopted 2 amazing baby boys [my little brother and I], finished our basement with the help of friends and neighbors, and worked full time until his mid-70’s. His last career was the warehouse manager at Ridge Home, for the handicapped. He passed at 80. He was a great husband, an excellent father, who cared about many. Still missed.

Nice Monsoon yesterday, it kept things cool. Today looks like more of the same. No complaints on the weather.

I first learned of John Muir when I was in 6^th grade. I learned about his amazing career as an environmentalist and that he started Sierra Club. Today, Sierra Club has ended its ‘blind reverence’ to him. Turns out he also made many racial epitaphs toward Blacks and Native Americans. I always wondered why Sierra Club was mostly white. The organization has admitted that they have a much less than stellar work environment for minorities. They are promising to change that. I will wait and see.

I just don’t get it…States are leaving up to their school districts to figure the reopening of schools. This is crazy. The American school system is made up of many districts…some large, some very small. None have the resources to get experts to determine a ‘safe’ opening. The current Federal guidelines are not even a little help. AZ is planning to open on Aug. 19, but the head of Education expects that date to move. As a former administrator and teacher, I know the work done before schools open…contracts for food, hiring staff, setting up in-service training, developing a school year calendar, setting up sport’s schedules and practices, accepting delivery of supplies and books…and the list goes on. There are many laws regarding the number of days of instruction, required classroom time, having certified staff, class size… I can not imagine what teachers and administrators are going through trying to open safe schools when the dates change every few weeks. So glad I’m retired.

 

Today’s Puzzle

Answer at the bottom of the page

Delete one letter from the word GROWING so the remaining letters spell a new word. Repeat this process until you are left with one letter.

 

Historical Events

1829 - In the United States, William Austin Burt patented (#5581X) the typographer, an early typewriter.

1926 - Fox Film bought the patents of the Movietone sound system, for recording sound onto film.

1950 -The Gene Autry Show debuted on CBS.

1961 - The Sandinista National Liberation Front was founded in Nicaragua.

1962 - Telstar relayed the first publicly transmitted, live, trans-Atlantic television program, featuring CBS's Walter Cronkite and NBC's Chet Huntley in New York, and the BBC's Richard Dimbleby in Brussels.

1972 - The United States launched Landsat 1, the first Earth-resources satellite. The spacecraft was turned off on January 6, 1978, due to overheating.

1984 - Vanessa Williams became the first Miss America to resign when she surrendered her crown after (earlier) nude photos of her appeared in Penthouse magazine.

1995 - Comet Hale - Bopp is discovered, and was visible to the naked eye on Earth in 1996.

1999 - Space Shuttle Columbia launched on STS-93, with Eileen Collins becoming the first female space shuttle commander

2012 - Earth had a near miss with a solar flare. Had it occurred a week earlier, it could have wiped out communication networks, GPS and electrical grids.

2019 Investigation launched after no girls born in three months in 132 villages in Uttarkashi district, India, with sex-selective abortions suspected as the reason

 

Birthdays Today

@83 - Haile Selassie, Ethiopian emperor (d. 1975)

@81 - Arthur Treacher, English-American actor, television personality (d. 1975)

@70 - Raymond Chandler, American crime novelist and screenwriter (d. 1959; pneumonia)

58 - Woody Harrelson, American actor

58 - Eriq La Salle, American actor

55 - Slash, English-American guitarist and songwriter

47 – Marlon Wayans, actor

@46 - Philip Seymour Hoffman, American actor (d. 2014)

31 - Daniel Radcliffe, English actor

 

Puzzle Answer

Growing, rowing, owing, wing, win, in, I

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