Apr 26

 

 

 

Apr 26 2021   Week: 18    Day:  116       

Visibility: 10 miles	Ave. Sky Cover:  5%
Local: H 67°\ L36 °	Nearest Lightning: 1585mi.
Wind:  8mph/ Gusts:  20mph	EXTREME Risk of Fire:  Active fire:  233mi
Record: 90°[1990]  Record: 24°[1972]	Apr. Averages: 60°/27° (3 days w/moisture)

 

Today’s Quote

 

We must not allow other people's limited perceptions to define us.

~Virginia Satir

Random Tidbits

 

The six Apollo crews came back to Earth with a total of 850 pounds (385 kg) of the moon.

Moon dust is said to smell like spent gunpowder.

Humor

 

Dad always bragged about the gunners on his ship. Once during target practice, an unmanned drone flew past an antiaircraft cruiser. The cruiser opened up, shells furiously flying all around the drone but not hitting it. Then came Dad’s ship’s turn. The gunners’ very first shot sent the drone into the water! Forty years later, Dad met the man responsible, and he told him how impressed he had been. “Yeah, I got in a lot of trouble for that,” the gunner said. “Turns out we were supposed to shoot around it, not hit it.”

 

Real Cities

 

Sopchoppy, Florida: a city in Wakulla County, Florida, United States. It is part of the Tallahassee, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 457 at the 2010 census. As of 2018, the population was estimated by the U.S. Census Bureau to be 482.

 

True Things

 

The Passing Parade

Authorities in Sri Lanka arrested Caroline Jurie, the reigning Mrs. World, after she snatched the crown from the head of Pushpika De Silva as she was crowned Mrs. Sri Lanka on national television on April 4, allegedly injuring her. Jurie, the 2019 Mrs. Sri Lanka, claimed De Silva was a divorced woman, which made her ineligible to win the pageant, but organizers confirmed De Silva is only separated, and she has been re-crowned. The new queen reported on Facebook that she went to the hospital to be treated for head injuries after the incident, and police spokesman Ajith Rohana told the BBC Jurie was charged with "simple hurt and criminal cause." Pageant director Chandimal Jayasinghe said, "It was a disgrace how Caroline Jurie behaved on the stage." [BBC, 4/8/2021]

 

Weekly Observations

 

Ramadan	Thru 5/11
International Wildlife Film Week Link	17- 5/15
Festival of Ridvan	20-5/1
National Stationery Week Link	20-26
National Scoop The Poop Week World Immunization Week	24-30
Fibroid Awareness Week Preservation Week  Link (re: Libraries)	25-5/1
National Infant Immunization Week (NIIW) Link Stewardship Week	25-5/2
National Playground Safety Week Link National Work Zone Safety Awareness Week Link	26-30

 

Today’s Observations

 

Alien Day  Link
Audubon Day Link
Hug an Australian Day

International Chernobyl Disaster Remembrance Day
Lesbian Visibility Day  Link
National Dissertation Day  Link
National Help A Horse Day
National Kids and Pets Day Link  Link
National Pretzel Day Link
Pretzel Day Link
Richter Scale Day

World Intellectual Property Day Link

World Pinhole Photography Day

 

My Sometimes-Long-Winded Thoughts

 

Lots of wind today, meaning a pile of pine needles everywhere. Too windy to take even a short walk. It is a Red Flag Warning day.

Back in the late ‘80’s the BIA decided that every school must have accreditation. Tuba had been accredited since 1979. I was selected to be on the accreditation committee Chair for Hunters Point Boarding School, a K-8 boarding school about 10 miles from Window Rock, the Navajo Nation capital. It was a small, nice school that had worked very hard to get accredited. They passed and a year later I went to the National Meeting of NCA to nominate the school. Flash forward to 2021. Hunters Point is the school Dr. Jill Biden visited on her visit to the Navajo Nation. Very cool.

As an English/Language Arts teacher, I was responsible for the Tuba City Spelling Bee. We had a local bee, then a city bee…against the public school, and then the winner went to the Coconino County Bee. Years later the Navajo Nation was able to get a seat at the National Spelling Bee. Many do not realize that Bee, along with the state and county bees, is a commercial enterprise run by Scripts/Howard Newspapers. In order to keep the ‘National’ in their title they had to admit the Navajo Nation, even though no Scripts/Howard Newspaper were available on the Navajo Nation. Now they have changed their rules to avoid having multiple champions. Participants will now have to answer vocabulary questions during the final rounds. Before this change, they only did this on the preliminary written test. They have also added a lightning round if there is a tie. Interesting for sure.

On the pandemic front: 39% of adult AZ residents have received at least one vaccine and 27% are fully vaccinated. All my AZ friends and I are in the 27%.  Gotta get that number to increase a lot.

 

Daily Puzzle

Answer: bottom of the page

 

How far can a squirrel run into the woods?

 

Historical Events

 

1278 – Imprisoned for murder, John le F*cker sent a letter asking for bail, the earliest recorded instance of the English swear word “f*ck”.

1564 – Playwright William Shakespeare was baptized in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. People were traditionally baptized three days after birth, this is how we know his birthday was April 23.

1882 – A perpetual motion machine was Patented (#257,103) by John Sutliff. It didn’t really work.

1921 – The first US broadcast of the weather was made from St. Louis, Missouri, over station WEW. Or so legend has it. There were few rules in the earliest days of radio, so another station may have made a weather announcement. It was about 55 degrees.

1933 – The Gestapo, the official secret police force of Nazi Germany, was established.

1978 – Ringo Starr’s Ringo a musical version of The Prince and the Pauper, aired on NBC, with George Harrison narrating.

1986 – Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant disaster, Ukraine, sending a radioactive cloud over much of Europe. It was announced two days later.

2010 – Boobquake was envisioned by Jennifer McCreight. An estimated 200,000 people participated worldwide, and the epicenter was considered the Purdue Bell Tower in West Lafayette, Indiana.

2012 Indonesia suspends imports of American beef after a confirmed case of mad cow disease in California

2019 "No religion" tops survey of American religious identity for the first time at 23.1% edging out Catholics 23.0% and evangelicals 22.5%, in long-running General Social Survey

2019 Waorani people of Pastaza win landmark environmental case against the Ecuadorian government to protect half a million acres of their territory in the Amazon rainforest

 

Birthdays Today

 

@93 – Rudolf Hess, Egyptian-German politician, Nazi (d. 1987; suicide by hanging)

88 – Carol Burnett, American actress, singer, producer

@85 – Charles Richter, American inventor, seismologist (died in 1985)

83 – Duane Eddy, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, actor

79 – Bobby Rydell, American singer and actor

58 – Jet Li, Chinese-Singaporean martial artist and actor

56 – Kevin James, American comedic actor

51 – Melania Trump, Slovene-American model; 45th First Lady

46 – Joey Jordison, Drummer [Slipknot]

44 – Tom Welling, American actor

41 – Channing Tatum, American actor

 

Puzzle Answer

 

Halfway. After that, he is running back out of the woods.