Apr 19

 

Week 17 Day: 109  Ave. sky cover: 30% \ Visibility: 10 miles Flagstaff Today 72° \32°  Wind: 6mph \ Gusts: 16mph
Extreme risk of fire \ Nearest active fire: 132mi \ nearest Lightning: 1845mi
Apr Averages for Flagstaff: 59° \ 28°  (3 days of moisture)
Papette, French Polynesia: 82° and sunny!

Today’s Quote                                         

Weekly Observations

3- 5/1 Ramadan 16-22 INVICTUS GAMES 16-24   National Park Week: Link

17-23 Animal Cruelty/Human Violence Awareness Week Link  Chemists Celebrate Earth Week Numismatic Week ( National Coin Week) Link  National Paperboard Packaging Week National Pet ID Week Link  Link National Princess Week Link National Volunteer Week

18-22  Undergraduate Research Week Link

18-23 Cleaning For A Reason Week Consumer Awareness Week Police Officers Who Gave Their Lives In The Line of Duty Week

19-21 National Catholic Educational Association Week

 

Daily Observations

 

My Sometimes-Long-Winded Thoughts

I had a very nice Easter. I had a great phone call with my brother. They are spending the week in San Miguel. I called Lori, Bob Eckhardt’s eldest. She is doing well after losing her husband in January. She and her sister are planning a memorial for Bob in late July. Sure hope I can make it. She is also attending a couple of art shows that will honor Lynn. One in in Loveland, where they met, and the other is in Fort Robinson, where they spent many days and where they were married.

I was shocked then I read that the Grand Gateway Hotel in Rapid City is denying all natives to their property. Sioux tribal leaders from several tribes, including Pine Ridge, are suing in Federal Court over an 1868 treaty that forbids such actions. It is difficult to understand how this hatred still exists in 2022.

HBO is showing Spielberg’s West Side Story. I watched it last night. It is very well done. It was nice to see Rita Moreno. Congrats to the cast and producers for a great movie.

Sweden and Finland are now discussing joining NATO after the mess in Ukraine. To be honest I just assumed they were already members.

Technology is great until it doesn’t work. I spent several hours making a video presentation of my recent Focus trip to French Polynesia. I used the free video program that came with my less than a year-old computer. I finally got what I wanted and told the program to finish the presentation so I could post it. It was only 5 minutes long. As the machine was processing my fantastic pictures, a message popped up that I had an old driver, and the process could not be completed. I spent about 30 minutes trying to find the needed driver…all with no luck. So I updated a program I have been using for years…at a cost of $30. Now I’m ready to start all over.

 

Favorite Memes

 

A bit of Humor

He worked in the woods as a lumberjack, but I just couldn’t hack it, so they gave me the axe.

Trivia

o   With Italian, Greek, German, Japanese and every other style of restaurant you can think of practically on every street corner, it may seem difficult to come up with some examples of good ol' authentic American cuisine. Following are a couple of examples that might surprise you.

o   Most Chinese Food. All across America, Chinese buffets offer endless arrays of beautiful, deep-fried, grease-soaked food. General Tso's chicken, chop suey, egg rolls, chow mein, fortune cookies. What do all these dishes have in common? They were all invented in America. Chinese people typically eat rice with vegetables and maybe a little meat. And it's not battered or fried, and it's certainly not filled with cheese. That's all American.

Historical Events

Ø  1770 – Captain James Cook discovered the eastern coast of what is now Australia.

Ø  1775 – The American Revolution began in Lexington, Massachusetts.

Ø  1897 – The first Boston Marathon was held.

Ø  1927 – Mae West was sentenced to ten days in jail for obscenity for her play Sex in New York. She served eight days with two days off for good behavior.

Ø  1975 – India’s first satellite, Aryabhata, was launched.

Ø  1982 – NASA announced that the first black astronaut would be Guion S. Bluford, Jr., and the first woman astronaut would be Sally K. Ride.

Ø  1985 – Two hundred ATF and FBI agents laid siege to the compound of the neo-Nazi survivalist group The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord in Arkansas.

Ø  1987 – The Simpsons first appeared as a series of shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show,

Ø  1993 – At Mount Carmel in Waco, Texas, the FBI launched a tear-gas assault on the Branch Davidian compound, ending with a fire that killed 81 members, including 22 children.

Ø  1995 – A massive truck bomb exploded outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, killing 168 people.

Ø  2013 – Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev is killed in a shootout with police. His brother Dzhokhar is later captured hiding in a boat inside a backyard in the suburb of Watertown.

Birthdays Today

@91 – Hugh O’Brian, American actor (d. 2016)

76 – Tim Curry, English actor

@66 – Dudley Moore, English comedic actor and pianist (d. 2002; rare brain disease)

57 – Suge Knight, American record producer, co-founded Death Row Records

@54 – Eliot Ness, American law enforcement agent (d. 1957; heart attack)

54 – Ashley Judd, American actress

44 – James Franco, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter

43 – Kate Hudson, American actress

@34 – Jayne Mansfield, American actress (d. 1967; car crash)