Dec 14

 

‘Tis the Season

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Dec 14, 2020  Week: 51 Day: 349	Local:  H 36°\ L 19°\Average Sky Cover: 20%
Wind:   9mph\Gusts:  16mph	Nearest lightning: 983mi.; Active fire:  59mi
Moderate Risk of Fire	Visibility:  10mi
Record: 66°[1946]   Record: -14°[1962]	Nov Averages: 44°/\17° (5 days with moisture)

 

Today’s  Quote

We don't see things as they are,

we see them as we are.

Anais Nin

 

Random Tidbits

Dogs tend to make great guard animals, but they're not the only creatures that you can count on to watch your back. In fact, donkeys, dolphins, geese, ostriches, emus, llamas, and alpacas are also used as guard animals around the world - doing everything from protecting sheep to patrolling harbors for the U.S. Navy.  

 

A little humor

Q: Where do sheep go to get haircuts? The baa-baa shop!

 

True Things

Scores of pesky black vultures are ruling the roost in one unlucky Pennsylvania town - harassing residents, wrecking homes and coating entire trees with their droppings. The birds, with wing spans up to five feet, have terrorized the town of Marietta in the past, but one resident reported that this year is the most extreme. Residents in the town, located on the Susquehanna River outside of Lancaster, have reported the birds have pecked at their roofs, porch furniture and garbage cans. Trees are also almost being completely covered with their white droppings. "I mean pure, pure white," one resident told a local paper. Deterrence options are limited as the black vulture is protected under federal law.

 

Observations This Week

Human Rights Week:…………………………………..	10-17
Gluten-free Baking Week:……………………………	12-18
Cookie Exchange Week:………………………………	13-17
Christmas Bird Count Week Link…………………	14-1/5
Halcyon Days……………………………………………..	14-28

 

 

Observations for Today

AKC Champtionships
Asarah B'Tevet
International Monkey Day Link or Link
National Biscuits and Gravy Day

National Bouillabaisse Day

Roast Chestnuts Day

U.K. National Postal Worker Day

Yoga Day Link

 

My Rambling Thoughts

It is still chilly after a cold night. And not enough snow to even cover the dirt. Next time, I guess.

As the sun set, my phone reported several fender benders from ‘black ice’ on most Flagstaff roads and both I-40 and I-17 as well as the highway to Tuba. Glad I didn’t have to be out for any reason.

I heard an interesting proposal from Chef José Andrés on CNN. He has been feeding people in disaster areas around the world for years. Since food is so important to human life, he believes there should be a Dept. of Food in the Executive Branch. This department could help the hungry and food insecure people in the country. I’m sure the Dept. of Agriculture would not give up it’s territory easily. But paying farmers to NOT grow crops and to throw away good crops to keep prices up makes no sense when people in our country are food insecure or hungry.

The Cards are playing well against the Giants. In the 4th Q Broncos are leading the Panthers. Hope they both win.

My trip to Mexico is just a week + 1 day away. I sure hope it remains a go.

 

Today’s Puzzle

Answer at the bottom of the page

He has married many women but has never been married. Who is he?

 

 

Historical Events

1656 – Imitation pearls were first manufactured by a Frenchman, named Jacquin.

1819 – Alabama became the 22nd US State.

1852 – Cullen Whipple, of Providence, R.I., patented (# 9477) his “Mechanism for Pointing and Threading Screw-Blanks in the Same Machine.” Prior to that screws were generally made with a flat tip. His machine made them pointy.

1900 – Max Planck demonstrated that energy can exhibit characteristics of physical matter, in certain situations, introducing quantum mechanics. Previously, the energy was considered a form only in wavelengths.

1902 – The Commercial Pacific Cable Company laid the first Pacific telegraph cable, from San Francisco to Honolulu.

1903 – The Wright brothers made their first attempt to fly with the Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. They got it to work on December 17th.

1911 – Norwegian Roald Amundsen became the first explorer to reach the South Pole.

1940 – Plutonium (Pu-238) was first isolated at Berkeley, California.

1964 – In Heart of Atlanta Motel v. the United States: The Supreme Court of the United States ruled that Congress can use the Constitution’s Commerce Clause to fight discrimination.

1986 – Voyager, the experimental aircraft piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, took off from Edwards Air Force Base in California on the first non-stop, non-refueled flight around the world, in nine days.

2012 – Adam Lanza entered the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Connecticut, and shot 26 people, and then himself. 20 children were killed in the attack.

2017 The Vatican announces it has rediscovered the lost last paintings of Raphael in Vatican Museum, painted in 1520

 

Birthdays Today

@86 – Don Hewitt, journalist, producer, creator of 60 Minutes (d. 2009)

71 – Cliff Williams, bassist, vocalist AC/DC

@69 – Patty Duke, American actress (d. 2016; sepsis)

@62 – Nostradamus [Michel de Nostredame], French astrologer, seer, and physician (d. 1566; gout/edema)

60 -- James Comey, American lawyer and former FBI director

32 – Vanessa Hudgens, American actress

 

Puzzle Answer

A member of the clergy.

Enjoy the Holiday