14 Dec

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December 2022

Daily Almanac for Flagstaff
Week 51 Day 348 \ Ave. Sky Cover 90% \ Visibility 10 miles Flagstaff Today 26° \7° 
Wind 4mph \ Gusts 11mph  Air Quality: Fair \ Very Low Risk of fire \ Nearest active fire 131mi \ Nearest Lightning 893mi
Dec Averages for Flagstaff: 43° \ 17° `
On & Off Light Snow

Today’s Quote

 

Weekly Observations

Andisop (Meteorological Fiddling): 5-24   Link
Computer Science Education Week: 5-11 Link
Human Rights Week: 10-17
Christmas Bird Count Week: 14-1/5 Link 
Halcyon Days: 14-28 

Daily Observations

Monkey Day

National Bouillabaisse Day

Roast Chestnuts Day

Halcyon Days – Traditionally, the 7 days before and after before and after the Winter Solstice.

Monkey Day Link

U.S. Park Police Day

Yoga Day Link

My Sometimes-Long-Winded Thoughts

I woke up to light snow. It has been overcast with that light snow starting and stopping most of the day. It is not adding to the accumulation.

Not really knowing what to expect, I headed out to buy some groceries…just in case. Main roads were dry, side streets were icy with cinders already laid. The main roads use chemicals to stop the ice…and kill any vegetation in its path. Side streets are always cinders…to protect the environment.  

The Cardinals are now 4-9 after a loss to the Patriots on Monday Night Football.

For some reason the US is not as prevalent in the continent of Africa as Russia and China. The latest news report says that now the Russians are hiring African mercenaries to fight in Ukraine. After 7 visits to various parts of Africa, I certainly saw the Chinese influence in the modern airports and some highways. I also learned that if the local government defaults on the debt that built anything, it becomes Chinese property. The US sends lots of aid, in the form of grain and food stuffs to various African countries. Sadly it is a known practice that the Russians stick their label on the donations before it reaches the people.

Favorite Memes

	Flagstaff morning by local photographer.

Did you Know?

Donkeys and dolphins are sometimes used as guard animals.

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.   

Slang Origins

1935: Tizzy

Meaning: highly excited, distracted, or worried state of mind

President Franklin Roosevelt spent most of his presidency trying to help the U.S. economy recover. In 1935, he passed his Second New Deal, more aggressive than his previous attempts. This included the Social Security Act, and the debate over it still throws American politics into a tizzy today.

Corny jokes

9. What’s the difference between the bird flu and the swine flu?

One requires tweetment and the other an oinkment.

….

10. Why do people say “break a leg” when you go on stage?

Because every play has a cast.

Historical Events

1287 – St. Lucia’s flood: The Zuiderzee sea wall in the Netherlands collapsed, killing over 50,000 people.
1780 – Alexander Hamilton married Elizabeth Schuyler at the Schuyler Mansion in Albany, New York.
1900 – Max Planck presented a theoretical derivation of his black-body radiation law. (Quantum Mechanics)
1962 – NASA’s Mariner 2 became the first spacecraft to fly by Venus.
2017 – The Walt Disney Company announced plans that it would acquire 21st Century Fox, including the 20th Century Fox movie studio, for $52.4 billion.

Birthdays Today

@87 – Morey Amsterdam, American actor (d. 1996)
@86 – Don Hewitt, American journalist, and producer, creator of 60 Minutes (d. 2009)
73 – Cliff Williams, bassist (AC/DC)
@69 – Patty Duke, American actress (d. 2016; ruptured intestine)
@62 – Nostradamus, French astrologer, seer, physician (d. 1566; gout/edema)
“I had determined to go as far as declaring in abstruse and puzzling utterances the future causes of the “common advent”, even those truly cogent ones that I have foreseen. Yet lest whatever human changes may be to come should scandalize delicate ears, the whole thing is written in nebulous form, rather than as a clear prophecy of any kind.”– Nostradamus
@62 – Charlie Rich, American singer-songwriter, guitarist (d. 1995; embolism)
57 – Ted Raimi, American actor
@55 – Lee Remick, American actress (d. 1991; cancer)
@54 – Tycho Brahe, Danish astronomer (d. 1601; burst bladder)
“Those who study the stars have God for a teacher.”– Tycho Brahe
@53 – Lindley Armstrong "Spike" Jones, American singer, bandleader (d. 1965; emphysema)
34 – Vanessa Hudgens, American actress
“If people don’t like me for whatever I do, for being me, then that’s too bad. I don’t want to change to be something that I’m not for other people to like me.”– Vanessa Hudgens
31 – Offset, American rapper