Nov 4

 

 

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Nov 4, 2020  Week: 45 Day: 309	Local:  H 63°\ L 33°\Average Sky Cover: 30%
Wind:   5mph\Gusts:  9mph	Nearest lightning:  23mi.; active fire:  59mi
high Risk of Fire	Visibility:  10mi
Record: 73°[1975]   Record: -1°[1922]	Nov Averages: 53°\23° (3 days with moisture)

 

Today’s  Quote

When I started counting my blessings,

my whole life turned around.

Willie Nelson

 

Random Tidbits

 In 1909, Key West painter and author Robert Eugene Otto claimed that one of his family's servants placed a voodoo curse on his childhood toy, Robert the Doll. Supposedly, the doll would mysteriously move from room to room, knock furniture over, and conduct conversations with Otto. Robert the Doll was left in the attic until Otto's death in 1974, when new owners moved into his Florida home. The new family also claimed mysterious activities would happen in the house connected to the doll. Today, Robert the Doll is on display at the Custom House and Old Post Office in Key West, Florida.

 

A little humor

What do you call an exploding dinosaur? Dino-mite

 

True Things

Over the Top

In July, Taco Bell announced various changes to its menu, provoking uproar among some of its fans, Riverfront Times reported. But Bryant Hoban of O'Fallon, Mo., saw an opportunity. When Hoban heard that the Potato Soft Taco was being sliced from the menu, he jumped in the car and headed to his nearest outlet, where he bought several of the items, then put them in his freezer. Then he listed three of them on Facebook Marketplace for $200. "These babies are rare!" he gushed. "Never been eaten!" It's all part of Hoban's scheme to start an "investment sandwich" business, he said. "You know, like the McRib -- McDonald's only offers it once a year, but the demand doesn't go away." Hoban has sold two of the tacos for $70 each: "I recouped my investment."

 

Observations This Month

Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month Link Pet Diabetes Month Link Picture Book Month Link PPSI Aids Awareness Month Prematurity Awareness Month Link PTA Healthy Lifestyles Month Link Stomach Cancer Awareness Month Link Sweet Potato Awareness Month Link   Teff and Millet Month Link Triple Crown of Surfing (11/12-12/20) World Vegan Month Worldwide Bereaved Siblings Month

 

Observations This Week

World Origami Days: 24-11/11	Nat’l Patient Accessibility Week: 2-6
Drowsy Driving Prevention Week: 1-8  Link	Polar Bear Week: 1-7
Give Wildlife A Brake! Week: 1-7  Link	World Communication Week: 1-7
Nat’l Animal Shelter Appreciation Week: 1-7  Link	World Karaoke Championships: 2-7 Link
Nat’l Fig Week: 1-7

 

 

Observations for Today

Check Your Blood Pressure Day	Nat’l Candy Day
Internat’l Stress Awareness Day	Nat’l Easy-Bake Oven Day
King Tut Day	Use Your Common Sense Day
Nat’l Chicken Lady Day

 

My Rambling Thoughts

Woke up on this election day to overcast sky and a sprinkle of rain. A tad ominous. I headed out to my polling place at 8a. No line, lots of younger poll workers, marked both sides of my ballot and was in and out in less than 10 minutes. Gotta love Coconino County, AZ for it is always fast and efficient voting. By 10a the sun was shining and it was a nice day.

Now I am sitting at home, anxiously awaiting the results. I have voted in every election…local, primary, general, and special election since I turned 21. Due to all the hype, this one really did feel different.

For those that don’t know, federally recognized Indian Tribes have sovereignty within the borders. When a general election rolls around, tribal voters have to go to two different polling places. On Navajo, the tribal election is usually held at the chapter house while the county, state, and federal polling site is usually in a gym or church. Both have the signs about how far away campaigners must be. At the tribal site, there is always a ton of native food, for free, from the various candidates…mutton stew, fry bread, corn and soda pop. At the state site, no food at all. For a presidential election while I was at Red Lake, the staff set up a mock election in our vestibule, just outside the gym, for the 7^th and 8^th graders to vote. Each student had to sign in to get a ballot, go to a desk to mark the ballot, and then place it in a sealed box with a slit in the lid. When the Head Cook heard about the plan, she volunteered that her staff would provide fry bread to each student who voted. It was a big success. The Presidential winner was announced just after the mock polls closed at 2p. The majority had picked the eventual national winner.

In 1922 Carter found King Tut's tomb. I was fortunate enough to visit there over a decade ago. It was magnificent. I also learned that I could never have entered an unknown tomb, with only a flashlight, bend over and work my way through it. I am still glad he did it, so decades later I could also bend over and with hanging lights make it all the way in and back out again.

 

Today’s Puzzle

Answer at the bottom of the page

A man is trapped in a sealed room with only two doors. One of them leads to a fire-breathing dragon, while the other one leads to a room made up of magnifying glass. Anyone who dares to enter it is charred off before they know it. How does he escape?

 

Historical Events

1667 (Earthquake) Shamakhi (now Azerbaijan) estimated 80,000 people killed.

1841 – First wagon train arrived in California. They left Independence, Missouri on May 1, 1841.

1846 – The first U.S. patent (#4,834) for an artificial leg was granted to Benjamin F. Palmer of Meredith, New Hampshire.

1873 – A patent (#144,182) for a gold crown was issued to Dr. John B. Beers of San Francisco, California on “artificial crowns for teeth”.

1879 – James Jacob Ritty and his brother John invented the first cash register, to stop the stealing by his bartenders in the Pony House Restaurant saloon in Dayton, Ohio.

1904 – First stadium built specifically for football opened (Harvard Stadium). Officially, when referring to more than one stadium, they should be called ‘stadia.’ But ‘stadiums’ works too.

1914 – Vogue held the first model show (“Fashion Fete” in New York City), although individual American stores had shown models wearing the latest fashions since the early 1900s.

1922 – The entrance to King Tutankhamen’s tomb was discovered in Egypt, in the Valley of the Kings, by English archaeologist Howard Carter.

1939 – First air-conditioned automobile (Packard) was exhibited, Chicago, Ill. The A/C option was available for $274 until 1941. WW II stopped the production of many luxury items. It wasn’t until 1953 that air conditioning was commercially available in cars again.

1946 – UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) was founded.

1948 – TS Eliot won the Nobel Prize for literature “for his outstanding, pioneer contribution to present-day poetry.”

1952 – The United States government established the National Security Agency, or NSA.

1964 – The (toy) Easy Bake Oven was released.

1979 – 500 Iranian “students” seized the US embassy, took 90 hostages (444 days) in the “Iran hostage crisis”.

2008 – Barack Obama was elected President of the United States.

2015 Justin Trudeau sworn in as Canadian Prime Minister with a cabinet split equally between men and women

2019 Largest mass commutation in US history when 462 non-violent inmates freed from Oklahoma prisons as part of state prison reforms

2019 Nine members of a US Mexican Mormon family, including six children, shot and killed in attack by criminal gang in Northern Mexico

 

Birthdays Today

@92 – Walter Cronkite, American journalist, voice actor, and producer (d. 2009)
@90 – Doris Roberts, American actress (died in 2016)
@85 – Art Carney, American actor (d. 2003)

83 – Loretta Swit, American actress, and singer

74 – Laura Bush, American educator, and librarian, 45th First Lady
60 – Kathy Griffin, American comedian, and actress
60 – Ralph Macchio, American actor
@55 – Will Rogers, American actor, and screenwriter (d. 1935; airplane crash)
51 – Mathew McConaughey, movie actor
51 – Sean Combs, American rapper, producer, and actor

@42 – Robert Mapplethorpe, American photographer (d. 1989; AIDS)

 

Puzzle Answer

He waits until nighttime and then leaves through the glass room.