Aug 19

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

Aug 19, 2020  Week: 34  Day: 232                 Local:   H 87° \ L 54° \ Average Sky Cover: 40%

Wind:   2mph\Gusts:  4mph                          Nearest lightning:  4.9mi.; active fire:  59mi. 

Extreme Risk of Fire                                        Visibility:  10mi

Record High: 88°[1983]   Record Low: 35°[1979]   Aug Averages: 79°\50° (9 days with rain)

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Today’s  Quote

"If you are not willing to risk the usual,

you will have to settle for the ordinary."

-Jim Rohn

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Random Tidbits

 The most dangerous volcano today is Popocatepetl, nicknamed El Popo, which is just 33 miles from Mexico City. El Popo is still active, sending thousands of tons of gas and ash into the air each year.

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A little humor

A tough old Badlands rancher once told his grandson that the secret to long life was to sprinkle a little gunpowder on his oatmeal every morning. The grandson did this religiously, and he lived to be 93. When he died, he left 14 children, 28 grandchildren, 35 great-grandchildren … and a 15-foot hole in the wall of the crematorium.

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State Name Origins

One account maintain the Michigan name is based on a Native American Chippewa word, "meicigama," meaning "great water." Another version of the name claims the state gets its name from Lake Michigan and that Michigan is a French conversion of the Ojibwa word misshikama, which means "big lake," "large lake," or "large water."

As we move west, many of the state names are derived from Native American place names or language. Minnesota is one of them. The name "Minnesota" comes from the Dakota Sioux word "Mnisota," the Native American name for the Minnesota River, which means "cloudy water" or "sky-tinted water."

The name "Mississippi" comes from the word "Messipi" - the French version for either the Ojibwe or Algonquin name for the river, "Misi-ziibi," meaning "great river."

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Observations This Week

Pueblo Revolt, New Mexico  Aug10-20, 1680

National Aviation Week: 15-21  
National Chef's Appreciation Week: 16-22  Link   
Minority Enterprise Development Week: 18-24

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Observations for Today

Aviation Day
"Black Cow" Root Beer Float Day
 (8/19/1893 by Frank J. Wisner, Cripple Creek Brewing Co., CO.  Link 
Coco Chanel Day
International Bow Day Link
International Orangutan Day   Link
National Potato Day

National Soft-Serve Ice Cream Day

National Hot & Spicy Food Day

National Medical Dosimetrist Day 

World Humanitarian Day Link  
World Photo Day  Link

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My Rambling Thoughts

There was a 5-minute sprinkle today. Looks like more is coming to drop our temps a little. I’m ready.

Tuba Boarding has released its 20-21 Calendar. All they did was slide up the start day by 6 weeks…having school end in early July. I talked to a current employee and found this was straight from DC. Staff will not get pay until mid-September. Those who have their pay spread over the calendar year get their last check this week. With the new calendar, they also got a letter stating they were eligible for unemployment until the school year starts. During every summer they are eligible for unemployment since they are ‘furloughed’ during the summer. The big problem is that some who applied for unemployment at the end of the last contract in May have just received their first unemployment check this week. So happy I’m retired.

The Dems convention is certainly unique. I enjoyed the opening, with all the children singing the National Anthem. I found parts informative. Bernie and Michelle did a good job of explaining their positions. I was a little disappointed that Michelle’s speech had not been recorded after Biden picked Harris. It is 2020 and should not have been that hard to use a newer taping. One day down, three to go.

My neighbor with the truck and trailer parked somewhere else last night. He did show up around 10a, minus the trailer. Now I am very curious to what the note from the tow company said.

I have talked about my great Trans-Siberian trip last year with Focus. Here is an update: one of our guides, Vlad, is a Facebook friend of mine. He spent the early summer at a children’s day camp just outside Moscow. He said it was more difficult with Corvid and masks but worked out. This was his 10^th summer of working there. After the camp was over, he grew a full beard to go with his bald head. Now is in Belarus, keeping us updated on the crisis there. He still plays and sings.

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Today’s Puzzle

Answer at the bottom of the page

In a year, there are 12 months. Seven months have 31 days.

How many months have 28 days?

*bonus

What spends most of its time on the ground but never gets dirty?

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Historical Events

295 BC – The first temple to Venus, the Roman goddess of love, beauty, and fertility, was dedicated by Quintus Fabius Maximus Gurges

1561 Mary Queen of Scots arrives in Leith, Scotland to assume throne after spending 13 years in France

1612 – The “Samlesbury witches”, three women from the Lancashire village of Samlesbury, England, were put on trial, accused of practicing witchcraft, with all three of the Samlesbury women acquitted.

1692 – In Salem, Province of Massachusetts Bay, five people, one woman and four men, including a clergyman, are executed after being convicted of witchcraft at the Salem Witch Trials.

1745 Jacobite Rising 1745 : Bonnie Prince Charlie, raises his standard at Glenfinnan, Scotland, igniting the second Jacobite rebellion.

1812 – American frigate USS Constitution defeated the British frigate HMS Guerriere off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada, earning the nickname “Old Ironsides”.

1848 – The New York Herald published the news to the East Coast of the US about the Gold Rush in California.

1909 – The first automobile race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

1934 – The first All-American Soap Box Derby was held in Dayton, Ohio.

1960 – With Korabl-Sputnik 2, the Soviet Union launched the satellite with the dogs Belka and Strelka, 40 mice, two rats, and a variety of plants. All of the creatures survived

1991 – Black groups targeted Hasidic Jews on the streets of Crown Heights in New York, New York for three days, after two black children were hit by a car driven by a Hasidic man.

2010 Operation Iraqi Freedom ends, with the last of the United States brigade combat teams crossing the border to Kuwait

2019 Sudanese Ex-President Omar al-Bashir admits he has received $90 million from Saudi Arabian royals at the start of his corruption trial in Khartoum

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Birthdays Today

@87 – Coco Chanel, French founded the Chanel Company (d. 1971)

86 – Renée Richards, American tennis player, and ophthalmologist

@80 – Peter ‘Ginger’ Baker, English drummer, and songwriter (d. 2019)

@79 – Malcolm Forbes, American publisher and politician (d. 1990; heart attack)

@79 – Gene Roddenberry, American screenwriter, and producer, Star Trek (d. 1991; cardio issues)

@76 – Orville Wright, American engineer, and pilot, co-founded the Wright Company (d. 1948)

74 – Bill Clinton, American lawyer, 42nd President of the United States

73 – Gerald McRaney, American actor

@68 – Ogden Nash, American poet (d. 1971; Chron’s disease)

@64 – Philo Farnsworth, invented the Television (d. 1971; alcoholism)

57 – John Stamos, American actor

55 – Kyra Sedgwick, American actress

51  - Mathew Perry, actor

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Puzzle Answer

All months have 28 day

*bonus

Your shadow

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