May 9

 
Daily Almanac for Flagstaff
Week 20 Day: 129 \ Ave. sky cover: 5% \ Visibility: 10 miles Flagstaff Today 7° \40° 
Wind: 8mph \ Gusts: 20mph
Extreme risk of fire \ Nearest active fire: 12mi \ nearest Lightning: 551mi
May Averages for Flagstaff: 68° \ 34°  (3 days of moisture)

 

Today’s Quote

Weekly Observations

3-11  (World) Dystonia Awareness Week Link

6-12  National Nurses Day and Week: Link  Link

6-15 National Public Gardens Week  Link

8-14   Food Allergy Awareness Week  Link National Nursing Home Week National Return To Work Week   National Women's Health Week  Tick Awareness Week

8-15 Reading is Fundamental Week  Link   Salvation Army Week   Salvation Army Week   Work At Home Moms Week

9-13   Economic Development Week  Link National Etiquette Week

9-15  National Hospital Week  Link National Stuttering Awareness Week

 

Daily Observations

My Sometimes-Long-Winded Thoughts

Another windy day. Warm and windy. The wind should die down about 4pm. Oops weather service just extended the wind advisory through 6pm tomorrow. Oh well. It sounds like the picture party for our French Polynesia adventure went very well. Sorry I missed it. Anne emailed me to keep me informed.

There were 8 illegal campfires in the forest close to Flagstaff on Saturday. Our fire department and the forest service took care of it, including big fines for those who did it. From the news report, it sounds like all the campfires were started by visitors to our fair city. Two different ones were started at Air B&B spots.

The May Day parade in Russia was originally to honor workers. The Victory Day parade today began after the Cuban Missile Crisis to promote their military’s defeat of the Nazis in 1945.

Sargassum seaweed is infecting Mexico’s Caribbean beaches. When the floating brown seaweed washes ashore, it smells like sulfur. That messes up tourist trade. Since February the Mexican government has taken 97tons of it from the ocean and 900 tons from their beaches. WOW!

Favorite Memes

 

Safest Cities in the World New

10. Abu Dhabi, UAE

Interestingly, over half of this middle eastern city’s population is made up of ex-pats! Foreigners flock to Abu Dhabi for business opportunities but end up staying because of its extremely safe and easy-going atmosphere. Ritzy, glitzy and at the same time traditional and charming, Abu Dhabi is one of the safest cities in the middle east as well as the world. Travelers have a very low risk of being mugged, pickpocketed, or scammed and women report feeling just as safe in Abu Dhabi as they do in other European and North American cities.

State Trivia

Kansas: it's home to the world's largest ball of twine

A rather unusual record to hold, Cawker City in Kansas is home to the world's largest ball of twine. Started in 1953 by a local man Frank Stoeber, the giant ball stood eight feet (2.4m) tall just four years after Frank started it. He donated the ball to the city in 1961 and work on it has continued ever since. Every August a twine-a-thon is held when local residents and visitors continue adding twine to the massive ball. Currently, it's estimated to contain eight million feet (2,438km) of twine.

Kentucky: you can't buy bourbon everywhere in the state

Kentucky is well known for its bourbon – today it's home to such famous distilleries like Jim Beam, Maker's Mark and Bulleit. It's also a well-known fact that barrels of bourbon outnumber people by about two million, however, you might be surprised to find that buying the famous libation isn't actually possible everywhere in the state. Out of Kentucky's 120 counties, about a third are completely dry with no liquor sales allowed and another 49 are moist, meaning alcohol is only legal in certain places. That leaves just 32 counties were alcohol is fully legal.

Louisiana: Lake Pontchartrain Causeway bridge is the world's longest over a body of water

Stretching an astonishing 24 miles (38.6km) across Lake Pontchartrain, the bridge provides a direct connection between Metairie in New Orleans in the south and Mandeville in the north. The first two-lane span of the causeway took just 14 months to build and was opened in 1956, with the second parallel bridge following in 1969. For a stretch of eight miles (12.8km) there's no sight of land at all so motorists have been known to freeze and police have had to then escort them off the bridge.

Historical Events

Ø    1662 – The precursor to Mr. Punch made his first recorded appearance in England.
Ø    1671 – Thomas Blood, disguised as a clergyman, attempted to steal England’s Crown Jewels.
Ø    1865 – The patent (#47,631) was issued to Richard Jordan Gatling for the Gatling gun, which was the first to successfully combine reliability, high firing rate, and ease of loading into a single device.
Ø    1887 – Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show opened in London, England.
Ø    1893 – The first motion picture exhibition was presented by Thomas Edison in Brooklyn, New York to an audience of 400 people at the Dept of Physics, Brooklyn Institute, Brooklyn, NY using his Kinetograph.
Ø    1914 – Although referred to since the late 1800s, US President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the first Mother’s Day holiday on this date.
Ø    1955 – West Germany joined NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization).
Ø    1958 – Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo has its world premiere in San Francisco.
Ø    1960 – The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the world’s first commercially produced birth-control bill-Enovid-10.
Ø    1961 – Newton Minow, Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, referred to television as the “vast wasteland”
Ø    1974 – The United States House Committee on the Judiciary opened impeachment hearings against President Richard Nixon.
Ø    2001 – In Ghana, 129 football fans died in the Accra Sports Stadium Stampede Disaster.   
Ø    2015 – Russia staged a large military parade in Moscow’s Red Square to commemorate the 70th anniversary of Victory Day.

Birthdays Today

@93 – Mike Wallace, American journalist and media personality (d. 2012)

@82 – Albert Finney, English actor (d. 2019)

@77 – J.M. Barrie, Scottish novelist and playwright (d. 1937; pneunomia)

76 – Candice Bergen, American actress

73 – Billy Joel, American singer-songwriter and pianist

@64 – Howard Carter, English archaeologist, historian (d. 1939; Hodgkin's disease)

60 – John Corbett, American actor [Northern Exposure]

@59 – John Brown, American activist (d. 1859; hanged)

43 – Rosario Dawson, American actress